Libraries of Russia: the first Russian Library of Contemporary Art

The first Russian public library focused on the history and the theory of the world and Russian contemporary art opens on December 10, 2014, at the Garage Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art. Library catalog includes more than 15,000 books and magazines.

The collection contains the leading art experts’ monographs, the guides to the group exhibitions and museum collections, the books about artists, the contemporary art and architecture magazines, the editions on cultural theory, photography, design and philosophy. Particular attention is paid to periodicals and rare out-of-print publications dedicated to unofficial art of Soviet period.

The library is located in the Garage Educational Center, joint with the exhibition hall of the museum in Gorky Park. The library operates in the reading room mode. Readers are allowed to use copier and scanner, Wi-Fi and an electronic library catalog are available. In the near future the contemporary art library visitors will get access to online resources JSTOR and Artstor.

Among the sources of collected at the library materials are the private donations, the gifts of Russian museums and galleries, but the core of the book collection is the Garage Museum’s acquisitions made in the largest international and domestic publishing houses, as well as at the out-of-print book stores around the world.