The Museum was founded in 1939 and till 1985 was called the Chuvash State Art Gallery. It is a department of the Chuvash National Museum. The Chuvash State Art Museum was organized on the basis of the Chuvash Museum fund and various gifts.
The exhibits represent Russian art of 17th -early 20th centuries.
The funds of the museum contain paintings, sculptures, drawings, and works of folk art, of modern and past time, decorative art.
The Chuvash State Art Museum is housed in 3 buildings. The main building in Kalinin Street opened in 1985. There you can see a constant exposition of Chuvash fine art and works of folk art and pictures by Russian, Chuvash and foreign artists. The museum fund has about 500 paintings. Among them there are some by famous Chuvash artists A. A. Kokel, N. V. Ovchinnikov, Petrov (Praski Vitti), etc.
The museum collection contains Chuvash national costumes, patterns of embroidery.
The 2nd building is in the former mansion of the merchant F. P. Yefremov (K. Ivanov Street). There are 2 departments there: Russian art and foreign art. The collection of Russian art has icons, books, paintings, sculptures and drawings of the 16-20th centuries and Eastern and European porcelain. You can find pictures by Rokotov, Borovikovsky, Tropinin and others.
Nikolai Vasilievich Ovchinnikov is the People's painter of the Chuvash Republic, Honoured Art Worker of the Chuvash Republic. He was born in 1918 in the village of Mizhuli of Mariinsky Posad district of Chuvashia. N. Ovchinnikov started his education in the Engraving College in Alatyr. After finishing the third year he entered preparatory classes of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and then he entered the Academy.
He took part in the Finnish war and in the Great Patriotic war. After the war in 1945 he continued his art education at the Institute named after Repin, graduated from it in 1951 and entered post-graduate course of the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union. He finished the course in 1954 and received the degree of Candidate of Art.
N. Ovchinnikov became a member of the Artists' Union of Russia in 1952. He was a teacher at the Art Department of the State Teacher's Training Institute.
The painter took part in many exhibitions in Moscow, Warsaw, Bucharest, Leningrad, and Volgograd.
His personal exhibitions were organized in Cheboksary.
Alexei Afanasievich Kokel is the first Chuvash painter who received professional education. He was born in 1880 in the village of Tarkhani of the Batyrevo district of the republic in the poor family of peasants. At the age of seven the boy went to the local school. There in his free time he copied pictures from the books in the school library. He was ten when he fell ill with bone tuberculosis. Due to his disease he couldn't work hard and painted all the time. He depicted everything: domestic animals and birds, peasants and his village. Then he started to picture icons for the local churches and people.
In 1899 there was a heavy drought in the Volga region and his health condition became acute. Medical students who came to the region helped him and then the boy was sent to Petersburg.
After a long treatment he learned at the Art School at the Academy of Arts and at the same time attended the studio of A. Makovsy. Then he studied in the Academy of Arts. He was granted a trip to Italy for his picture In the tea-room.
When he returned from abroad in 1916 he was invited to the Kharkov Art College and the painter spent the rest of his life in that city,
His pictures were exhibited in Petersburg, Munich and Venice, Kharkov, Cheboksary and other cities.
A.A. Kokel died in Kharkov in 1956.
Moisei Spiridonovich Spiridonov is the People's painter of the Chuvash Republic, Honoured Art Worker of the Chuvash Republic. He was born in 1890 in the village of Yanshihovo-Norvashi of the Yantikovo district of the republic. He studied at the village two-year school and after that entered the Kazan Art School,
In the period of 1912 to 1917 he studied at the Higher Art College attached to the Academy of Arts in Petrograd. Then he started teaching at the Pedagogical College at the station of Shikhrany. Spiridonov was one of the organizers of Artists' Union in Chuvashia. He became a member of the Artists' Union in the Russian Federation in 1933.
The painter took part in many exhibitions in Moscow and Kazan. His personal exhibitions were organized in Cheboksary.
MUSEUMS IN CHEBOKSARY
The Chuvash National Museum is one of the first scientific establishments which started to study history, culture, economics, daily life and nature of the Chuvash Republic systematically. The Museum was opened 12 February 1921 in Cheboksary. An important role in the opening of the museum was played by N.P. Neverov, a graduate of Warsaw University, who became the first head of the museum.
First, the Chuvash Central Museum was housed in 5 rooms on the first floor of the former mansion of merchant P.E. Yefremov. Lately the address and the name of the museum changed several times: in 1930 the museum moved to the Dormition Church, in 1937 it was called The Chuvash Central Museum, in 1939 on the basis of the museum the Chuvash Art Gallery was opened; in 1940 it was named The Chuvash Republic Museum of Regional Studies.
During the World War II (from autumn 1941 to November 1944) the museum was closed: in its building there was an archive of a military unit. In 1980 the museum moved to the former mansion of merchant M.E. Yefremov. In 1993 it was called The Chuvash National Museum. Now it is situated in the mansions of the Yefremovs family. The Chuvash National Museum is the biggest depository of the natural, historical materials and spiritual culture of the Chuvash Republic. The museum's funds have more than 146,000 exhibits. Permanent exhibition has 3 halls: nature, archaeological and historical studies, and the new history of the region. The Museum has several branches: The Literary Museum; The Chapayev Museum, the Cosmonautics Museum in the village of Shorshely, the Outdoor Ethnographic Museum in Ibresi.
The name of our countryman, Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev, is well-known not only in Chuvashia. He was a legendary hero of the Civil War. He perished at the age of 32 in the Ural River. In 1960 a monument to Chapayev was transferred to Cheboksary from a small town of Mytishchi in the Moscow Region. The monument is situated in the public gardens. There you can also see the Chapayev Museum which opened on 9th May 1974. Chapayev’s son Alexander Vasilievich took part in the opening ceremony.
The museum is a branch of the Chuvash National Museum; it was designed by the architect Suslov and is a part of the Chapayev Memorial. On the façade of the museum there is a sculptural composition Chapayev’s Cavalry. It is made of brass and was executed by Chuvash sculptors Bryndin and Cherepanov.
The museum has a rich collection of documents, photographs and other exhibits which illustrate Chapayev’s life and military activity. They keep the film Chapayev which was shot by the Vasiliev brothers in 1930s.
About 2 million people have visited the museum since its foundation.
The Literary Museum is located in the centre of Cheboksary, in Leningradskaya Street. Its displays let visitors see the development stages of the Chuvash language and literature. The exhibits are connected with life and creative activity of such famous Chuvash writers and poets as Konstantin Ivanov, Mikhail Sespel, Pyotr Khuzangai, Yakov Ukhsai, etc.
THEATRES IN CHEBOKSARY
Cheboksary is the cultural centre of the Chuvash Republic. 5 state professional theatres are situated here. They are the Chuvash Opera House, the Chuvash Drama Theatre, the Russian Drama Theatre, the Youth and the Puppet Theatres.
The youngest and the most beautiful one is the Chuvash Opera House. In 1959 the Chuvash State Academic Drama Theatre was reorganized into Music and Drama Theatre. The new creative life began. Professional actors cooperated with amateurs. On the 22nd of May 1960 the first night of the first Chuvash opera Water mill composed by Vasiliev was held, the libretto was written by A. Alga. That day became the birthday of the new professional Chuvash Musical Theatre. The first opera was followed by Evgeny Onegin by Tchaikovsky, "Chapay" by Mokrousov, and Narspi by Hirbyu.
In 1960s in Leningrad Choreographic College named after A. Vaganova future actors for Chuvash ballet were trained. In 1970 the audience of Cheboksary saw the first national ballet Sarpigue to the music by Vasilyev.
The Chief Producer and Artistic Manager Boris Markov played an important role in forming the Chuvash Opera House.
In 1985 the theatre received a new white marble building of peculiar architecture on the high bank of the bay.
The repertoire of the theatre today is opera and ballet performances by Russian, Chuvash and foreign authors. International Opera Festivals have become a tradition. They are devoted to our countryman, a singer of the Bolshoy Opera House Maksim Dormidontovich Mikhailov (1893-1971). He was born in the village of Koltsovka of the Vurnary district.
The nearest to the Opera House is the Chuvash State Order of the RedBannerDrama Theatre named after Konstantin Ivanov. It is situated on the other side of the bay in Red Square. It was founded in 1918 in Kazan. The first actor and stage manager was a student of Kazan College of Arts Maximov-Koshkinsky.
In 1920 the theatre moved to Cheboksary. During the years of hard creative work many performances and plays by Russian and foreign classics, translated into Chuvash were staged. In 1933 the theatre was given the honour of being called academic, in 1959 it was named after K. Ivanov, the founder of the Chuvash literature, the author of the poem Narspi.
In 1961 the theatre moved into a new building, where it is situated now. In 1977 it was awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
The Russian Drama Theatre in Cheboksary was formed by a troupe of professional actors and amateurs of the Russian Drama, who rehearsed and staged plays in Cheboksary at the beginning of the 20th century in the house of merchant Kluyev and then in People's House.
The date of its organization is considered to be 1922, when the Russian Drama Theatre began its first session.
The first stage manager was an actor from St.Petersburg Slobodskoy. Since 1937 the artistic manager of the theatre became Tokmakov, a graduate of the studio of the Maly Art Theatre.
In the years of World War II more than 300 plays were staged by actors of the Russian Drama Theatre in military units and hospitals of the country.
In 1982 for merits and development of home theatrical art the Russian Drama Theatre was awarded with the Badge of Honour. Now it is located in Gagarin Street.
The Puppet Theatre is situated in Uritsky Street in a beautiful building. The repertoire of the theatre includes 37 performances and show programmes for children.
The Youth Theatre named after Sespel doesn't have its own building. It functions in the Palace of Culture of the Cheboksary Tractor Plant; its director is Vyacheslav Orinov. The leading actors are Sv. Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Pavlov. Plays by Russian, Chuvash and foreign playwrights are staged there.
The Chuvash State Philharmonic Society was created in 1936. It supervises the work of a number of folklore groups. Now it comprises the folklore ensemble Syaval, the group Sespel, ensembles Chuvash Yen and Yalan, a theatre of miniatures. The building of the Philharmonic Society is relatively new. It was built in 1982 and is situated in the most picturesque part of Cheboksary, on the bay embankment.
The Chuvash Republic possesses quite a high cultural potential. There is also an academic choir, a state chamber orchestra of ancient and modern music.