This museum complex is launching the “Mystetsky Arsenal. Backstage View. History. Present Day. Future” series of unusual guided tours that will last until December 6. Visitors will be shown parts of the premises previously kept off limits, including the upper stories, basements, walls of the Pechersk Fortress, and the courtyard that 400 years back was the site of the Convent of the Ascension. These tours are meant to demonstrate the Arsenal’s actual potential, which is still to be implemented. Suffice it to say that a mere three percent of the 63-square-meter museum area are being used and the number of visitors could well reach 8-10 million a year. This way the organizers want to attract the attention of the state and society to the fact that this culture-and-art facility, meant as Ukraine’s calling card, is unfinished, and that it is high time this shortcoming were rectified.
23,000 ITEMS ON DISPLAY
The first point on the itinerary is the Arsenal’s courtyard. Once a military facility, the structure was built toward the end of the 17th century. It has an interesting closed shape. Even before the Arsenal, the Convent of the Ascension and the Church of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God stood in the center of the courtyard. During the construction of the military facility, the church was dismantled and the materials used for one of the facades. The convent existed for another 10 years alongside the military facility.
In 2005, a culture-and-art facility started being organized, with an archaeological expedition working in the courtyard. No one knew what the diggings would reveal. In the end, they unearthed 23,000 items. Archaeologist Viacheslav Buranov said that the finds included four wooden chess pieces dating back to the 15th century, a pectoral cross from the Cossack period, a monastic icon, a number of ornamented dishes, and even the rynka – prototype of the frying pan. All these items are currently on display in the local history section of the Arsenal.
IN 2005, A CULTURE-AND-ART FACILITY STARTED BEING ORGANIZED, WITH AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION WORKING IN THE COURTYARD. ARCHAEOLOGIST VIACHESLAV BURANOV SAYS 23,000 ITEMS VARYING IN VALUE AND AGE WERE DISCOVERED
The diggings also revealed 276 burial sites, those of nuns for the most part. Then the expedition left and that was that. Parts of the convent’s foundation are still exposed to the elements, although overgrown with weeds, and the place looks more like a vacant lot than a necropolis. In fact, there should be two floors at a depth of 10 meters, with museums storage facilities.
EXHIBITION HALLS UPSTAIRS
Steep dusty stairs lead to the third and fourth floors, with heaps of construction garbage here and there, as though the construction workers were to return any minute. “You can see the reception area, the visitor area is on the second floor, and the art labs, interactive museum stock storage facilities, the electronic library, and the repair shop are on the fourth floor,” says Arsenal director general Natalia Zabolotna, pointing to the screen with the complex’s layout display. We climb the stairs and see three shafts that can be used for elevators. “The third floor is good for contemporary art exhibits,” adds Natalia.
The third floor offers a scenic view of the Pechersk Monastery of the Caves, especially its belfry and courtyard. “Here we can have a cafe adjoining the contemporary art museum, alongside Ihor Dychenko’s avant-garde display. That would be a public place open even when the museum is closed,” continues Natalia. Sounds good, but the project is still on paper.
FORTRESS WALLS RENOVATED
Puddles on the path leading to the fortress walls. Chief curator Viktoria Velychko shares the museum’s problems: not a cent from the central budget, so the museum staff has to earn money to show that the Arsenal is not just what the visitor sees, that the huge facility is unfinished.
“These fortress walls were reconstructed, I mean they were built anew in 2005, during the reconstruction of the Arsenal, to restore the historical landscape,” Viktoria points to the mounds hidden under yellowed leaves and grass. “The archaeologists found a passage for artillery guns in the wall. And these are the ditches of the Pechersk Fortress.”
From the top of the wall one can clearly see the Arsenal’s western facade, once the richly decorated front entrance with a classical portico and balcony. There is a viewing platform that opens on the entire area. Natalia admits that she has been repeatedly offered to have this area (almost 10 hectares) built up. She has said no and hopes to hold the fort. If only they had the movie theater, the foreign museum exhibit reception office, the parking lots (all being part of the project, on paper), there would be no such offers.
“TILED” BASEMENTS
We went down the path leading to the basements, the only ones left under the Arsenal’s west wing. At the entrance, Natalia pointed to the trenches around the base, where a layer of waterproofing material was to be placed. The work was never finished and ragged pieces of waterproofing membrane were hanging like rags.
THE BASEMENTS ARE MORE OR LESS IN ORDER, WITH VAULTED TENDER SAND BRICKWORK, SO THE PLACE IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS “TILED”
The basements were more or less in order, cleared of brick debris. The ceiling was vaulted tender sand brickwork, so the place is often referred to as “tiled.” Natalia explained: “For this place to hold an exposition, we must have the floor, fixtures, and keep the temperature and humidity, because there is no central heating. We expect to use the place for local history exhibits, and I mean Arsenal history. We could show how the facility and the populace evolved, how people’s worldviews changed. We could use items from other museum stocks. Previously they kept harnesses and buckshot here.”
Under the project, the basements will be connected to the atrium underground floor. Should construction start now, the project would be completed in 2.5 years. Money is the only problem. In 2008, the project cost 1.6 billion hryvnias.
