Moscow's Department of Culture has announced a tender for organizing and conducting the opening ceremonies of a museum and exhibition center in the base of a famous statue in the capital.
The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman by Vera Mukhina is one of the most prominent statues to shape Moscow's landscape.
The opening ceremony of the museum and exhibition center inside the Worker and the Collective Farm Woman is scheduled for September.
The pavilion in the statue's platform can to accommodate an exhibition hall for 5,000 visitors and the total area of the complex is more than 8,000 square meters.
According to the tender, the starting bid is 4.9 million rubles ($161,000) to organize the opening ceremonies.
The winner will have to develop the concept of opening the center, the scenario for the cultural program, prepare sketches for the awards ceremony and a schedule for group excursions.
The opening ceremonies should include a fireworks and light show, concert and the release of some 5,000 balloons.
Applications for participation in the tender will be accepted from July 17 through August 17 and the winner will be announced on August 18.
The 24.5-meter high steel statue was first showcased at an exhibition in Paris in 1937. It features two figures which seem to be moving briskly, holding aloft a hammer and sickle, the symbols of the Soviet Union. Although the statue was created to glorify communism, the enduring strength and grandeur of the image is cherished by many Muscovites. The composition is also a logo for the leading Soviet and now Russian film studio Mosfilm. The sculpture was removed for restoration in the fall of 2003 and returned to its place near the all-Russia exhibition center VVTs in November last year.
MOSCOW, July 16 (RIA Novosti)
