Museum of Art Industry: Stages of Project Discussion (Late 19th — First Quarter of the 20th Century)

For the first time the history of the discussion of the project of the Museum of Art Industry among Russian creative and technical intelligentsia in the period of 1890—1920s is considered. Two stages of discussion of the idea of the museum in the context of the socio-cultural development of the country are singled out, and the justifications of the museum projects proposed by the representatives of the pre-revolutionary Russian intelligentsia of the late 19th century and the Soviet cultural figures of the 1920s are compared. The platform for the first stage of the discussion (1897) was the Moscow branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS). The initiator of the discussion at this stage was art historian A.M. Mironov. For the first time, the forgotten report by A.M. Mironov, which outlines the discussion around the museum project, is brought into the scientific circulation. Pedagogue P.P. Pashkov, engineer, mathematician K.K. Mazing, industrialist A.V. Lobanov joined the discussion. According to the idea of the authors of the project, the Museum of Art Industry was to fulfil cultural, educational and methodical functions. At the first stage the idea did not receive state support. At the second stage (1919—1924), the People’s Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky took part in the discussion of the museum project; the article pays special attention to the definition of his contribution to the theoretical justification of the museum project in connection with the prospects for the development of the art industry in Soviet Russia. Ceramist and pedagogue P.K. Vaulin outlined the main approaches to the creation of the collection, art historian Y.A. Tugendhold proposed the principles of exhibiting. It is stated that the complex of brilliant ideas around the project of the Museum of Art Industry, unfortunately, did not become the basis for the development of a unified concept of the museum. The disagreements were connected with the unrelatedness of the very concept of “art industry” in Russian humanitarian knowledge. The problem of creating a museum of art industry and the competitiveness of Russian goods on the world market, the technological independence of the country, were firmly interconnected. The echoes of the discussions of 1897 and 1920s around the project of the Museum of Art Industry are also felt in contemporary cultural policy, in the choice of priorities and directions of its development.