In November, 2011 the staff of the Museum of local Lore and Saint Petersburg Wax Museum, together with the boarding schools administrations and “Happy Child” Charity Foundation volunteers hold educational excursions for the pupils of special schools. These excursions were aimed at inculcating children with love to the culture and history of their native land. The museum was visited by the pupils of Zaporozhye Boarding School No 4, Zaporozhye educational and rehabilitation centre “Dzherelo” (Spring), and scientific and rehabilitation centre-boarding school “Orientir” (Waymark).
More than 25 wax figures were on display in the wax Museum hall. The children saw the images of such famous persons as Sophia Loren, Peter I, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Salvador Dali, Giovanni Casanova, Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Adriano Celentano, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, as well as popular cartoons and film characters – Harry Potter, Count Dracula, d’Artagnan and the three musketeers, and many other wax creatures.
“Few people know that a well-known American illusionist David Copperfield is from Odessa by origin and his real name is Kotkin,” – the manager – guide of St. Petersburg Wax Museum – Yekaterina Toporova shares secrets with children.
Everyone was amazed by the wax replicas’ likeness. No wonder, because it takes 6 – 12 months to create a wax personage. Highly qualified specialists of different professions – art historians, historians, shapers, wigmakers, makeup persons, decorators and many others – work on creating the figures following the images exactly. All figures were displayed full-length, except for Leonardo da Vinci.
“Each museum has its own wax formula which is kept in secret and is never shared. For example, the wax figures from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum are never transported in contrast with ours, and they can stand to the temperatures from – 40° C to +40°C”, - the manager – guide of St. Petersburg Wax Museum Victoria Miroshnik tells.
After they had seen the wax celebrities the foster children visited other Museum of local lore halls which were of the same interest for them. The museum research associate, head of a section Taranenko Svetlana Vladimirovna conducted an educational excursion for the children. Due to the talented guide the children learnt a lot of new things about animals and plants of Ukraine after visiting “Steppe”, “Wood” and “The Sea of Azov” halls. And children were told about the history of Zaporozhye and the ancient culture of their native land in “Aleksandrovsk: the town and the townsmen” and “The geological History of Zaporozhye region” halls.
The Staff of “Happy Child” Charity Foundation express their gratitude to:
Museum of Local Lore research associate Taranenko Svetlana Vladimirovna;
St. Petersburg Wax Museum manager-guides Yekaterina Toporova and Victoria Miroshnik.
On behalf of the young museum visitors we want to thank you for your time and interesting excursions. We wish you success and good visitors!
We are particularly grateful to the above mentioned boarding schools administrations. We are pleased to realize that we have a common aim – to bring up children with moral and ethical as well as esthetical values.
You can support the development of “Happy Child” Charity Foundation excursion and educational programmes. You can find more details about how to help this unique project here.
