I work at a newspaper, and they're running a story about the exhibit. It comes from the Associated Press and there's a picture that goes with it of Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey, guest curator, who is standing in front of the "Marie Antoinette with her Children" tapestry. I can't post the picture, but here's the article for those who are interested. It's a little more in-depth about the activities going on.
SANTA FE (AP) — Its nickname is the City Different, but the same things draw visitors to Santa Fe year after year: blue skies, brown buildings, a heady jumble of cultures, and art, art, art.
But this bastion of all things Southwestern is offering tourists a new twist this summer — a season-long celebration of Russia.
Anchoring ‘‘Russian Summer’’ will be the world premiere of an exhibit devoted to the last royals to rule Russia.
‘‘Nicholas and Alexandra: At Home with the Last Tsar and His Family,’’ is on display daily at the state-owned Museum of Fine Arts, just off the downtown plaza, through Sept. 5.
It features furniture, clothing, paintings, textiles, toys, family photo albums and fabulous art objects — think jewel-encrusted religious icons — assembled from five Russian museums and private collectors.
The items are displayed in tableaux that represent the private quarters in the Alexander Palace, the Romanovs’ principal residence before they were exiled to Siberia during the 1917 revolution. Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children were murdered in 1918.
‘‘This is a first,’’ said the exhibition’s curator, Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey. ‘‘This is looking at Nicholas and Alexandra and their family at home.’’
Santa Fe is the only city west of the Mississippi to host the exhibit, which was organized by the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation in Washington, D.C. It will travel to Cincinnati and Newark before heading back to Russia next year.
City and state officials and Santa Fe businesses are using the exhibit as a springboard for a citywide festival of Russian performing and visual arts — from bluegrass to ballet to Ukrainian egg decorating.
Visitors can view 19th century Russian photographs, the works of Russian impressionists and wood carvers, and an exhibit on the people and landscape along the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Lecture-lovers can listen to ruminations on the problems of contemporary Russia and the resilience of the Russian spirit. Or take a weeklong seminar on Dostoevsky at St. John’s College.
Or, they can kick back in the hotel lobby with a shot of Stoli and a good book.
‘‘I always have one copy of Robert Massie’s ‘Nicholas and Alexandra’ in stock, but I wouldn’t ordinarily go into summer with 50-plus,’’ said Dorothy Massey, owner of Collected Works, an independent bookstore preparing for a deluge of Russia-hungry readers.
Swig, a hip martini bar, has dreamed up drinks in keeping with the ‘‘Russian Summer’’ theme — with names like Cosmo-naut, Red Square, and KGB. For the truly hardy, there’s Crime and Punishment.
‘‘That’s on the stronger side of things,’’ explained general manager Patrick Padilla, describing a concoction of high-octane rum, bourbon, vodka, Cointreau ‘‘and a splash of Coca-Cola for color.’’
Hankering for a hit of faux-Russian zaniness? The Flying Karamazov Brothers, jugglers and comedians extraordinaire, will be at the Lensic Theater — a film and vaudeville palace reborn as a performing arts center — the first week in July.
There’s things for kids, too. The hands-on Santa Fe Children’s Museum is featuring dancing, puppet-making and Russian fairy and folk tales.
Several hotels are offering special packages that include passes to the museum exhibit.
Kenneth Pushkin, who sells 20th-century, Soviet-era Russian art from his gallery on leafy Canyon Road, hopes the summer’s events will create a lasting interest in Russian culture.
‘‘It’s a good place to start, just to present it as fun ... and that’s how you can endear people and build interest and build the cultural bridges that we’re talking about,’’ said Pushkin, who spends half his time in Russia and heads a charitable organization that supports orphanages and other projects there.
Pushkin, a distant relative of Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin, is also producer of the major entertainment events that bracket Russian Summer: the Grammy-nominated Russian bluegrass group ‘‘Bering Strait’’ on Memorial Day weekend, and the American premiere of a new version of the ballet ‘‘Onegin’’ on Labor Day weekend. "
