South Ural State University is not just hallways, classrooms, and lobbies. The university has five historical museums, the unique exhibits of which have been collected over many years. Today, the museums are open to visits from the university’s staff and students.
Museum of SUSU History
The Museum of SUSU History has collected materials about the organization of South Ural State University, which was originally called the Chelyabinsk Mechanical Engineering Institute.
The great history of the university is closely connected with the war and the leaders who set our university on its feet in the postwar period, scientists who developed the scientific direction of the university, worked on developments that have been applied in industry and in manufacturing. The museum holds exhibits that preserve the memory of every stage of our university's development and of the people thanks to whom it exists.
Address: 143 Kommuny St. (SUSU Heat Engineering Building).
The People and Technologies of the Urals Museum
The museum holds the most valuable exhibits found in the South Ural region by students and teachers of the Department of Russian and International History of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences, and Humanities. The exhibits cover a long time period, from the early Palaeolithic period to the period of the development of the South Ural region by Russians. The museum features a collection of various household items, jewellery, weapons, art, and more.
Address: 76 Lenin Prospekt (Room 09 of the main building, basement).
Museum of Geology
The museum displays about 1000 of the most representative samples in the following thematic expositions:
- most important rock-forming minerals and rocks of the Ural region;
- paleontological collection of index fossils, including bones of Quaternary mammoths and rhinoceroses of the South Ural region;
- mineral resources of Russia: ores of ferrous, non-ferrous, and other metals, as well as raw materials for construction materials and ornamental, gem stones, and more.
The museum regularly offers tours for students of the fields for which geology is the foundation—for future builders and architects, ecologists, metallurgists, and many others. In the museum, schoolchildren and students are trained for Olympiads in geography and geology of different levels.
Address: Building 1a, 76 Lenin Prospekt.
Art Gallery
This museum holds works of classical art from the collections of state museums or private collectors. The Art Gallery is open to all students and staff of South Ural University, and of other universities, schools, as well as to Chelyabinsk residents. The main goal of the gallery’s exhibitions is to familiarize everyone with samples of genuine art. Conferences, concerts, creativity evenings, and meetings with workers of arts are held at the gallery’s exhibitions. Gradually, the university is creating its own art collection through donations by artists or their descendants.
The gallery also shows the amateur art by academic and administrative staff members, and students of the university. Often, the amateur works presented at the gallery are not inferior to professional ones.
Today the SUSU Art Gallery is hosting an exhibition within a competition to find the best draft architectural project "Topolinka Ecopark".
Address: 1st floor, 76 Lenin Prospekt.
Branch of the Russian Museum
The Pushkin Hall of the Department of Theology, Culture, and Arts of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences, and Humanities is a chamber concert hall, a classroom for students of the Art History major, and an auditorium to host conferences and council meetings.
The opening of the Virtual Branch of the Russian Museum educational centre at the Pushkin Hall was a significant event for the university. The centre is fitted with unique modern equipment, including equipment which allows for direct communication with the Russian Museum and its branches.
You can visit the museum by advanced appointment with the Department of Theology, Culture, and Arts.
Address: 2nd floor, 76 Lenin Prospekt.