Traditional Matryoshka Nested Doll Making

 This beautifully illustrated interactive presentation by award-winning artist, scholar and educator, Marina Forbes, will feature the history of Matryoshka nested doll making. Using a fully illustrated show and numerous exhibits, including examples of her own work and from her extensive collection, Forbes will examine the tapestry of the rich folk tradition and symbolism of the doll’s appearance and the interesting link between doll making and other traditional art forms. There will be a quick stop at the 1900 World Fair in Paris that made nested dolls and Fabergé eggs famous followed by an exciting illustrated tour of a working doll-making factory in rural Siberia, depicting the various stages in the doll making process. The presentation will conclude with a glorious show of hundreds of examples of the finest Matryoshka artwork.

Presenter Marina Forbes is a lecturer, historian and award-winning artist who has lectured extensively on traditional arts, history and the rich tapestry of traditional culture. She is licensed with the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and is featured on the New Hampshire Humanities Council Roster as a speaker on Arts, History and Culture as well as NH Council on the Arts Rosters for Arts in Education and Traditional Arts. Each year, Marina leads cultural tours to Eastern Europe where she regularly updates her scholarship, gathering photos and documents, visiting craft factories, GULAG sites and monasteries, and interviewing journalists, political figures and scholars on the current state of affairs. Marina has a distinctive ability to generate energy and enthusiasm in the audience and to bring the rich fabric of traditional art and folklore to life for children of all ages through memorable and thought-provoking programs. Marina’s talks are sometimes a little bit funny, sometimes a little bit serious…. but always unmistakably Russian.