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First hand

Tretyakov Gallery · 20th century

A cycle of 10 documentary interviews with museum people who have given it most of their working lives. A candid look at the craft, personal experience, and how they help the museum grow; living testimony to the changes within its walls. Stories of knowledge and tradition they want to hand down to the next generation

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A Tretyakov Gallery support foundation project, with a presidential civil-society grant

Valentina Byalik: how the museum visitor has changed in 60 years
15,300+
total views on VKacross the first three episodes
Context

The project

Behind every major museum are people the public rarely sees. For decades they conserve, study, interpret, and live with the art from within. In this project we gave them room to speak in the first person — calmly, honestly, with memory of time, craft, and the Gallery that changed alongside them. What emerged is not a formal anniversary cycle, but a warm human archive: about love for the work, the museum world, continuity, and meanings no object label can carry

The project is implemented by the State Tretyakov Gallery Support Foundation in partnership with the Gallery, with a grant from the President of the Russian Federation for civil society development, provided by the Presidential Grants Foundation

Restorer Nina Divova: watercolour retouching on an icon in the Old Russian painting studio, 1973, STG archive
Source: sammlung.ru — Sammlung/«Kollektsiya» magazine
Production

What we set out to do

Filming an interview on location at the Tretyakov Gallery: lighting grid, four camera set-ups, video village

Set

Interview on set: subject and interviewer, camera on a tripod and lighting gear in frame

Interview

Photo source: sammlung.ru — Sammlung/«Kollektsiya» magazine

Our job was not simply to “shoot an interview,” but to shape a space where the heroes would feel calm and at ease. Because filming took place inside the Tretyakov Gallery, most of the work began long before the cameras rolled: location approvals, equipment logistics, crew access, technical requests, and working within the museum’s own rules and routines

On set we designed a 13-light scheme and prepped four distinct shooting plans to keep depth in the image while treating the participants gently. We needed them to look dignified, soft, and true to life — no hard light, no careless angles, no “TV interrogation” mood

The camera was meant to listen, not to push

A separate focus was our older interviewees. We followed each person’s pace, their comfort, pauses, seating, light, and the overall feel of the day. In projects like this, technical precision matters — but a human connection matters more. Without it, the image may be “correct” and still feel empty

In post, the studio shaped the rushes into an emotional documentary form: not a museum promo, but the personal recollections of people who know the Gallery from the inside. The edit called for a careful hand with structure, time for feedback, and respect for the speakers’ intonation so nothing of their living voice was lost

Series

Releases

Each interview is a self-contained chapter; together they form a view of the museum from the inside

  • 01

    Episode 1

    Valentina Byalik: how the museum visitor has changed in 60 years

    Valentina Byalik: how the museum visitor has changed in 60 years

    Six decades of audience change in one career

    Valentina Moiseyevna Byalik — guide, methodologist, and museum educator with 60 years of experience. Her long career and vivid stories of building the children’s studio at the Tretyakov Gallery, of her books, the challenges of guiding, and the joy of working with the public, especially children — will be valuable not only for professionals, but for anyone interested in art and museum life

    VK views: 12,300RuTube views: 7,777VK likes: 182
    Page on Lavrus
  • 02

    Episode 2

    Lyudmila Markina: how to study and show 18th-century Russian art

    Lyudmila Markina: how to study and show 18th-century Russian art

    From the excursion office to large exhibitions: the path of someone who knows the collection from the inside

    Lyudmila Markina came to the Tretyakov Gallery in 1973 and went from guide to head of 18th — early 19th-century painting. This episode is about safekeeping masterpieces, working with conservators, building exhibitions, museum continuity, and the inner sense of duty without which art cannot stay alive

    VK views: 1,700RuTube views: 4,840VK likes: 118
    Page on Lavrus
  • 03

    Episode 3

    Nina Divova: the art of making exhibitions

    Nina Divova: the art of making exhibitions

    65 years at the Gallery: from the conservation studio to hundreds of exhibition projects

    Nina Divova tells how she came to the Tretyakov Gallery from an artist’s family, became a conservator, and later led the exhibitions program. The episode includes memories of mentors, a “close-knit family of restorers,” work with early Russian art, shows abroad, and 700+ projects that helped visitors see the Gallery’s collection in a new way

    VK views: 1,300RuTube views: 5,700VK likes: 88
    Page on Lavrus
Live
“First hand”: Valentina Byalik & Lyudmila Markina. Live

“First hand”: Valentina Byalik & Lyudmila Markina. Live

Two storylines, one live conversation

A discussion between two gallery veterans: audiences, storage, show prep, and how curators and methodologists work together — for culture professionals and art lovers

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