"Kul'ttovary - Bringing Culture into the Soviet Home” will be curated and designed by Dr. Yelena McLane together with students from the Department of Interior Architecture & Design.

The Russian term Kul'ttovary translates roughly to "cultural goods." The concept of cultural goods was well known in the Soviet Union. For decades, each city, town, or village had at least one retail store called "Kul'ttovary." Specified items, broadly available for purchase at affordable prices, were intended to bring culture into workers' and collective farmers' homes.

The exhibition will focus on the history of Soviet design, the retail industry, and consumerism, driven by socialist ideologies aimed at promoting culture (literary, musical, and physical), planning for a cultured citizenry, and effectively distributing cultural goods within the USSR.

The exhibition is scheduled to open in the William Johnston Building gallery in September 2017. 

Your gift will enable the exhibition team to acquire additional objects for the exhibition, create more engaging multisensory installations, produce a catalogue, and promote the exhibition among wider scholarly communities and publics.

Thank you for supporting the Kul’ttovary exhibition with this one-time donation!