On the eve of the international cultural initiative “The Night of Museums“, the landmark “Lovers’ Bridge” in the capital city will host the “60 Years Together with the Sofia City Art Gallery”. The event constitutes part of the program for the gallery’s team to celebrate the institution’s 60th anniversary together with the public.

In 1928, following an order of the then mayor, General Vladimir Vazov, the Capital City Municipal Museum was founded to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sofia’s Liberation, as well as the 1000th anniversary of the Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture. This marked the beginning of the process of collecting materials, providing an account of Sofia’s history, culture, and art, namely books, documents, photographs, maps, city plans, archaeological finds, household artifacts, sculptures, paintings, graphic artworks.

Starting in 1929, the museum kept changing locations until the opening of a special building in 1941 on 3 “Banski” Square (demolished during the March, 1944 air raids). In 1948, part of the museum’s collection was transferred to the newly-established National Art Gallery. In April 1952, the City Museum ceased to be the home of the library and archive, and in October the same year the Sofia History Museum and the Sofia City Art Gallery became autonomous institutions. During the late 1980’s artist Vaska Emanuilova donated a substantial part of her work, which provided the basis for the collection of the “Vaska Emanuilova” Gallery, currently constituting an annex to the Sofia City Art Gallery, as well as a venue for the development of young Bulgarian artists.

The exhibition features documentary photographs, presenting the history, initiatives and significance of the SCAG in the period between 1928 and 2012. The “immortalized moments“ of the gallery’s history, presented by 60 posters, do not only savor the memory of the gallery’s past, but also provide an account of the variety of initiatives and events launched by the gallery at present.

The exhibition was organized in partnership with and with kind support from the Capital City Municipal Council, the BULPHOTO Agency, the Sofia State Archive, the “Old Sofia” municipal enterprise.