A soiree at the Khanenko Museum

The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts invited its patrons to a soiree. In this way, the museum joined for the first time the international A Night at the Museum campaign, which is conducted annually with the support of the Council of Europe and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

To recreate the atmosphere of the soirees that had once been held by the museum’s founders the Khanenko couple, the organizers were preparing for almost a year, consulting the late 19th century books of etiquette and salon games as well as training museum staff members and volunteers. Invitations to the soiree were available at the museum’s box office.

The guests were greeted as they ascended the stairs by the actors playing the Khanenkos who familiarized them with the collection of paintings, tableware, furniture, and sculptures. The hosts explained to the guests during a relaxed social talk how they had managed to obtain this or that family relic, and which decorators worked on the building’s interior.

To make the soiree feel more authentic, the organizers invited also the Virtuoso string quartet and the Joyssance and La Reverie historical dance groups. In addition, they published an issue of a late 19th-century-looking newspaper, based on the Kievskoe Slovo issues of 1895, where the old articles were placed alongside the current stories that were written, nonetheless, according to the old spelling rules.

The guests could not only watch the show, but also take a direct part in it, dancing, playing forfeits or cards, learning the secret languages of flowers and fan moves. The soiree ended with a lottery for ladies and gentlemen which will fund development of the children’s education programs at the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts.