Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive in St. Petersburg

About the Collection

In 2018, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art began building an archive collection that brought together materials related to the history of the local scene since the 1950s and documents covering the latest developments in contemporary art.

The collection contains materials on the key artists and events of the St. Petersburg art scene, self‑organized initiatives, short‑lived artist associations, and various subcultures. The archive contains sections devoted to particular artists, events, institutions, street art and graffiti, and club culture. The core of the collection is formed by ephemera related to exhibitions and events (posters, programs, press releases, invitations, booklets), both digital and analogue. The collection also features archival documents, photographs, original artworks and prints, as well as zines. The library collection contains 4,000 publications on the history of Russian and international art in the twentieth and twenty‑first centuries.

The collection expands through donations from artists, curators, researchers, collectors, and institutions, as well as through acquisitions based on research activity by Garage staff. The collection contains an archive and a library, which are continuously supplemented with new materials reflecting changes in the contemporary art scene and capturing important cultural phenomena of recent decades.