Unusual Project of the Museum of the History of Ufa: Artists Portrait Foreign Students of BSMU

For many years, artists have been painting portraits at the Museum of the History of the City of Ufa. But a few years ago, the project received a new round of development - foreign students who study at the Bashkir State Medical University became models for portrait painters. The project originated in 2024 thanks to the artist Elena Abushakhmina. To date, artists have painted more than 50 portraits of students of the Bashkir State Medical University.

"This project attracts special attention, as it allows you to penetrate both the external unique features of people of different nationalities (which is extremely interesting for the artist), and to communicate with talented, inquisitive and purposeful students from different countries," the creator of the project, artist Elena Abushakhminova says.

The culture of the peoples of the world always arouses genuine interest among artists, and models - representatives of different - nationalities are happy to talk about the peculiarities of their life and historical facts. Many foreign students are interested in Russian classics, at meetings they share their talents and successes in learning the Russian language: they sing romances and recite poems.

The drawing process takes about two hours:

"At the beginning, I introduce a student to the team of artists: course, country, name. Then we start drawing. As soon as the artists managed to "grab" the nature, we begin to get acquainted with the model closer, we ask questions: why they decided to become doctors, for what reason they chose Russia for training, what specialization they will choose in the future, how they spend their free time. We ask about their native country, family, traditions. In an hour we take a break, as it is very difficult to pose," the artist comments.

The project participants note that they do not come just to draw, the brush masters always expect something new from the meeting. According to Elena Abushakhmina, artists are keenly interested in who will come to pose for them and from which country their future model. And for foreign students, this is an additional motivation to better learn Russian, tell about themselves and participate in the creative process. The guys share their experience with friends and classmates, so queues for posing line up for the artists.

"I value this project, which has been going on for several years. I am pleased to see how our models are revealed. After the meetings, I write a message to their teacher of Russian language (literally a couple of sentences) about the impression, about what interested me in the "today's" model. It often turns out that in 2 hours of a student's drawing session, we learn more about him than teachers do over the years. I also like the excitement with which artists go to this event," Elena Abushakhmina says.

At the end of the meeting, students take their favorite works for themselves: they hang them on the walls in the rooms of their dorms, take them home and post them on social network. Among the models there are those who also like to draw, but cannot devote enough time to their hobby due to the busy study schedule. So, inspired by the creative atmosphere, one of the students of the Bashkir State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia joined the project as an artist.

'I've had the chance to go through the most magical and unforgettable experience of my life. I participated in a project in which many talented artists, each with their own unique style, painted my portraits. Watching them work was like seeing different versions of me come to life on canvas: soft and dreamy, bold and vivid, realistic or completely abstract. During those few hours, I truly felt like a celebrity - a person worthy of being studied, interpreted and celebrated through art. This experience gave me more than just beautiful works of art - it gave a deep sense of being seen, appreciated and accepted exactly as I am. He reminded me how powerful art can be in terms of bringing people together and how it can make someone feel truly alive and important," student Sonya Bharduaj from India shares her impressions.

"Thank you very much for the invitation to take part in the portrait project at the Ufa Museum. It was a very interesting and memorable experience for me. I really liked the meeting and atmosphere during the project. It was a pleasure to become part of something creative, and I will remember this day for a long time," future surgeon Mawani Deep Jigneshbhai from India says.

One of the key goals of the project is to hold an exhibition of portraits of students of the Bashkir State Medical University. Elena Abushakhmina hopes that this can be done at the native university of models.