Museums of Russia: The ceremony of laying the foundation of the new building of the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow

A ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new building of the National Museum and Exhibition Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), which is scheduled to open to visitors in 2018, takes place on November 4, 2014, at Moscow’s Khodynka. Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky is expected to attend the ceremony.

The new museum and exhibition complex space with total area of 46,500 square meters is thought to correspond to the edge museum technology fitting the permanent exposition of NCCA collection (now it includes about 5,000 items), the temporary exhibitions’ halls, a theater and a movie theater, lectures and the conference rooms, which can simultaneously accommodate more than 1000 people, an information center, public media library with, as of today, about 8000 publications and materials on the history of modern art, children's art studios, residential and working spaces for the artists, café and bookstore. Daily Museum and Exhibition Complex of the NCCA will be ready to accept more than 3 000 people.

This will be the first in Russia museum of world contemporary art, where works of Russian artists will be presented in an international context. This will let to access a new level of interaction with the world's largest museums and will contribute to the further integration of the Russian culture in the world artistic process. The new museum will become the cluster, unifying all those who involved in the creation, study, support and promotion of contemporary Russian art.

The building of the museum and exhibition complex will be erected after the project of Irish architectural bureau Heneghan Peng Architects - a winner of the international competition of design concept development for the of the new building of the NCCA.

The NCCA building on Zoologicheskaya Street in Moscow is aimed to turn into a full scientific information and educational complex, which will host lectures, workshops and other projects on the theory and history of modern art. It will also locate the NCCA archive with rare books and materials.