New Year message from Director of Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy

Dear all!

On behalf of the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy team let me wish you a happy New Year!

The departing 2017 has been remarked with a great deal of important events in the Museum's life. The challenges we faced prompted us to engage latent reserves to move forward. What is most important is that we believe in ourselves and our project, and think big. We perform and achieve a lot.

The 6th International Exhibition of Calligraphy has come to be a truly grand event that beat records in scale and reach. The exhibit featured handwritten masterpieces of Western European, Slavonic, Arabic and Oriental calligraphy, and even the Old Mongolian, while its key subject – For Life – reflected the diversity of calligraphy and its vital power. The event has been attended by delegates of international embassies, top officials and spiritual leaders representing all global religions.

The exhibition was packed with the most exciting talks and workshops, with the biggest buzz made by professor Sergey Savelyev, head of the nervous system development laboratory in Scientific and Research Institute of Human Morphology, the Russian Academy of Sciences, who held a talk dubbed Calligraphy and Brain. Impact of Fine Motor Skills on Cortex Development.

In October the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy put some of its unique exhibits on display at the Art-Retro exhibition held in the Moscow Government Headquarters on New Arbat. A month later the Museum joined the interdepartmental conference in the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, where it presented the unique handwritten Constitution of the Russian Federation made by Petr Chobitko, and its new project – the updated version of the Constitution being crafted by Yuri Koverdyaev, member of the National Union of Calligraphers. Some more masterpieces by calligraphy artists from all over the world were presented too, pooled together by the topic of reflections about the Motherland.

The departing 2017 will be remembered for its global cultural and educational projects aimed to teach calligraphy to various groups, including individuals with special needs.

The National School of Calligraphy has expanded its curriculum as of October 2017 – on top of its traditional training courses it now enrols students for Brushpen and Spencerian (levels 1 and 2) courses, and in December 2017 it held two crash courses on Russian Vyaz and Gothic Writing. The Museum also hosts cultural events, concerts, topical workshops and a reading room.

The Public University project has held two entertaining talks, The Character and Magic: Magic Sources of Initial Chinese Characters by Alexey Maslov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor and Head of the Oriental Studies School in the faculty of global economics and politics, Higher School of Economics, and the Evolution of the Chinese Writing Through the Ages by Dmitry Khudyakov, Candidate of Philological Sciences and Associate Professor in the School of Asian Studies, Higher School of Economics.

In November the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy has made a case at the Heritage of Russia. Folk Art and Culture for Children educational forum, where pointed pen workshops by Arina Lauri and Julia Trifonova have drawn a great attention.

Preparation for the international conference dubbed Calligraphy and Teaching has also started in 2017. Its eventual goal is to restore penmanship in curriculum of primary schools. The conference is designed to be exclusively practical in order to present specific cases on teaching children. These words, though may seem meagre at first sight, indeed represent a longstanding work to shift mind sets and unlock a huge potential of the national culture, which will serve as a basis for building a great country. This project is aimed at anyone who cares about the Russian education and culture of future generations.

As before, the Museum is true to its philanthropy commitment. In December 2017 it has launched a social programme Calligraphy for All to support rehabilitation of individuals with special needs. School No. 1 of the Small Business College No. 4 will now serve as a platform for regular calligraphy classes for children with autism, while adults will be able to take their classes in the Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation Centre of the Moscow City Health Department.

The year to come promises to be eventful, exciting and potential. Good luck with all your endeavours and may you enjoy well being, successful projects, inspiration, and harmony and comfort with your friends and family.

The Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy team wishes you a happy New Year!

The Director of the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy and
Manager of International Exhibition of Calligraphy
Alexey Shaburov