The 16th Small Museums Forum is taking place in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region
The 16th Small Museums Forum is taking place in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region from 1 to 10 October. This year, 89 museum venues are taking part, having prepared special programmes for local residents and visitors to the region. The forum’s main themes are ‘The Unity of the Peoples of Russia’ and ‘Family’. The full programme is available on the forum’s official website.
The forum introduces the public to museums situated beyond the major exhibition centres. Participants include municipal, industrial and departmental museums, as well as displays belonging to educational institutions, libraries and other organisations. Through modest collections and local histories, they reveal St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region from a variety of perspectives.
In 2026, new venues joined the forum. Among them are the Chronicles of Fiery History fire museum, the monumental painting museum at Gymnasium No. 11 on Vasilyevsky Island, the Dutch Kitchen museum, the Station Master’s House museum, the Maanselkä Estate museum and the Request Stop project in the town of Lyuban.
The programme includes guided tours, lectures, exhibitions, walks, interactive sessions, workshops and quests for children and adults. Some events are free of charge, while others require advance booking or a ticket.
This year, the organisers have also prepared new museum routes. Venues in the Vasileostrovsky and Petrogradsky districts have been brought together into themed programmes that allow visitors to explore several museums in a single day and discover the connections between their collections.
One of the programmes is devoted to the theme of family and education. As part of it, the Raznochinniy Petersburg memorial museum is presenting the exhibition ‘Dmitri Shostakovich: Time, Place, Encounters’. Guided tours of the display are also being held here during the forum.
A separate strand of the festival is devoted to the history of everyday life. Small museums tell the story of professions, urban domestic life, family traditions, industry and the people whose histories are bound up with particular districts of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
The Small Museums Forum offers a view of the region’s museum map beyond its best-known institutions. Over ten days, participants present their own routes and formats for exploring the city’s history, bringing together museum collections, local narratives and contemporary educational programmes.
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