Russian Programme in Partnership with the Bath Music Festival

BRLSI were honoured to be approached by Joanna McGregor of the Bath Music Festival with a request to stage some lectures and an exhibition in support of the Russian Theme in this year’s festival, reflecting repression of Orthodoxy and the Arts under communism. Three lecturers honoured this subject area. Dr Ruth Coates, University of Bristol, “IMAGE and LIKENESS – Icons and the Quest for Holiness in Russian Orthodoxy”, Dr Andrae Moskalenko, University of Bath, “The Repression of Russian Literature”, and Professor David Gillespie, University of Bath, “Russian Films of the Noughties – REVIVAL OF THE SPIRIT” in which we saw how contemporary films reveal a greater freedom to consider spiritual matters, particularly with reference to the earlier hard times.
 
The exhibition itself included nine sections; Toys – Matryoshka and Cheburashka, The Journey from Russia to Bath, Marriage in the Orthodox Church, Sounds of Orthodoxy, Orthodox Iconography, Era of Stagnation, Photographs – Old and New, Pieces of Russia and The Crimean War, all beautifully laid-out by Lisa Hartun, Sioux How, Monika Matysik, Rita Sarzedas and Amanda Sheridan of the University of Bath Spa.