The idea of creating a catalogue of modern art of St.-Petersburg has arisen a year ago in New York. The interest focused on modern art of Russia, so brightly shown in the first years of Perestroika, has died away quite long ago. The exhibitions of the modern artists from Russia are held, as a rule, in small galleries on the outskirts of the large life of fine art of the world.

There are a lot of reasons for that. But the one, in my opinion, eclipses all other - art of modern Russia is not presented to the world. In the cultural capital of Russia only three magazines overview topics of modern art. The galleries which have arisen in the beginning 90ies in huge amounts, could not survive after the crisis of August, 17, 1998 and just the remaining function now. Supporting the art of today is not a question of prestige.

The aggressive - vigorous actions, happenings and many other effective representations of creativity of the artists do not find the response in souls of potential Morozovs and Tretyakovs. And, the last but not the least, - there is no base for representation and study of process of development of modern art in the city, and - simply - there is no museum (or centre) of modern art (culture).

Small galleries, scattered around the city, and exhibition halls are unable to organise large-scale, long-time exhibitions, where the inquisitive spectator could see the art of the second half of XXth century in development.

Therefore, creation of a virtual museum in the Internet remains for today a unique opportunity to present modern art of St. Petersburg and to make it popular for the whole world.

The creation of a similar museum requires, at least, enough time. And - therefore - the end of this project is planned for year 2003.

Today in the Internet already exists a site “Russian album” at www.russkialbum.com , where the art of women-artists of St.-Petersburg from different generations and schools is represented. It is not a feministic action, but the only possible way of development of the desired project.

“Russian album” is organised by a principle of the catalogue, where it is possible to get acquainted with works of women-artists, representing with their creativity various trends of development of art of St.-Petersburg in 60ies-90ies.

The structure of the site for today is simple enough, and the information is divided in categories: painting - sculpture – photo-art and so on.

But, despite the simplicity of the approach to accommodate the information, and traditional organisation of the site, it is the only site of a similar type, where the information on women-artists, representing various creative associations, sometimes being hostile to each other in real life, is impartially assembled.

The sites of various museums, as a rule, represent the information, reflecting opportunities of a real museum, thus, creating an electronic copy of something already existing. The catalogue “Russian album” is an attempt to dream up and, having taken advantages of virtual space, to unite the creativities, to present a uniform unique palette of the city.

The main principle of selection of the information is impartiality.

Some twenty leading art-critics of St. Petersburg worked on creation of this catalogue. The technical support and design of the site “Russian album” is carried out by the American multi-media company “AVANT-RUS”.

We have tried to present not only modern lines of development of art, but the features of school of art-criticism, developed within the last fifty years, as well.

Today, the work on the site proceeds and, developing the project, we hope, that the virtual museum of modern art of St.-Petersburg of second half of XXth century will be interesting for a visitor from any country of the world.

To represent the information in the site in the most interesting way, the visitors of an existing site, their age, interests, education are carefully investigated. All this is taken into account in the further work on the www.russkialbum.com.

The visitors of the virtual catalogue “Russian album” can be divided today into approximately two categories:

1^st group represents the conservatives - intellectuals. The sensation of maximal approach to real space (in our case - a museum) and linear presentation of the information is necessary for them.

The appeal of development of new electronic technologies for them means an opportunity to receive easily huge volume of information by virtue of its availability.

2^nd group is less intellectually pliable to the cultural phenomenas.

One of the tasks of the developers of a virtual museum is to grasp correctly the form of submission of the material for this quite large youth group.

And the only painless way of transferring knowledge to them can become in using the newest “technical toys”, included in presentation opportunities of the site “Russian album”.

Proceeding from all mentioned above, the tasks of creation and development of “Russian album” are complex enough.

On the one hand, it is the presentation of modern art of St.-Petersburg of second half of XXth century, and on the other - the educational program designed not only for the visitors, interested in modern art, but also accidental visitors at “Russian album”.

The work at the site proceeds, and we hope, that the creation of a virtual museum as a popular resource, will give an additional opportunity to integrate a unique collection of modern art of St.-Petersburg of second half of XXth century into the global cultural process.

Anna Frants represents New York based electronic publisher Avant-Rus www.avant-rus.com. Our latest involvement with russian art was www.russkialbum.com. Being an experts in the field of electronic publishing and art gallery we also thoroughly familiar with the latest technology in the professional field.

Olga Thomson, art-critic, the president of the St. Petersburg Social Charity Fund “Russki Album”, post-graduate of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin.

Avant-Rus is an electronic publisher/ design company, specialising in the field of art. We execute project starting from the very concept to the final application including technical side of the project. Avant-Rus offers its clients new concepts and ideas, taking them from a blank page to the finished product. We also involved with art in the real world and company runs an art gallery in SOHO district of New York.

St. Petersburg Social Charity Fund “Russki Album” was created to maintain the basic conditions for researching the major trends of the contemporary art of the 2^nd half of the XXth century. One of the main fields of fund activities is creation of a virtual catalogue to present the contemporary art of St. Petersburg in the World Wide Web as a joint venture with the American multi-media company “AVANT-RUS”.