Supported by The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
RU / EN
Supported by The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

About Project

Nicholas Roerich, who was an artist, a teacher, a scientist, a traveller, a public figure, and a thinker, left a huge legacy in the form of his own paintings, sketches, literary works, archival documents, as well as collected art objects.

An integral part of Russian and world culture is creative heritage and social activities of him and his family members: his wife Helena Roerich, and two sons, one of whom, George, was an orientalist and the other, Svetoslav – an artist.

"Roerich's heritage" portal was created under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. It is developed by the representatives of three different institutions dedicated to preserving, studying and popularizing Roerichs' legacy. In this context, the leading organization is the State Museum of Oriental Art (Moscow) with the active participation of the Saint-Petersburg State Roerich family Museum and Institute and the Nicholas Roerich Museum (New York).

Each of the organizations has its own Roerich collections and extensive experience in working with them. Thus, we decided to combine our efforts while working on the portal, since we believe that today, despite the abundance of on-line resources devoted to various aspects of Roerichs' personal and creative life, the media space contains too much unreliable and speculative information on this topic.

Our portal unites organizations and their specialists: from professional art historians to researchers of Roerich's heritage, who have many years of experience in studying the subject, from museum workers to archaeologists and archivists.

Professionalism and objectivity, facts and their careful analysis, respect for the heritage and a critical approach to sources, openness and collegiality are the main principles that the portal managers intend to follow in their work.

The portal managers set numerous tasks of different focus, namely:

– To present academically verified information about Nicholas Roerich and his family members, likewise their creative heritage on the pages of the portal;

– To design Nicholas Roerich's artistic heritage catalogue;

– To prepare Nicholas Roerich's creative biography together with identifying key creative stages (taking into account the results obtained while working on the structure of the catalogue);

– To compile a database on technical and technological aspects of Nicholas Roerich's creative works;

– To introduce new pictorial, archival and other materials concerning Nicholas Roerich, as well as his family members, and their creativity, into scientific use;

– To create a unified open database following the materials of Roerich collection;

– To reflect current research work in the field of Roerich study;

– To create a unified open database following archival documents dedicated to Nicholas Roerich and his family members;

– To publish the literary heritage of Nicholas Roerich and his family members;

– To keep the public informed about exhibitions, projects and events held by participating organizations.

The portal managers based their following goals on working with Roerich's heritage:

- To promote cultural aspects in the modern world view;

- To strengthen friendly relations between peoples through culture;

- To overcome confessional alienation between representatives of different religions;

- To promote Russian culture and art throughout the world.