30 July 2025

The State Darwin Museum hosted the grand opening of the exhibition "The Adorable Giant Panda"

On July 30, the State Darwin Museum hosted the grand opening of the exhibition "The Adorable Giant Panda" as part of the Cross Year of Culture between Russia and China.

The acting director of the State Darwin Museum Tatyana Kubasova addressed the guests with a welcoming speech, telling about the friendship between the Darwin Museum and museums in China. Welcoming speech by the director of the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Ni Minjing was presented to the audience. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy, the Minister-Counselor for Culture, Mr. Feng Litao, spoke about pandas as a symbol of China, and about the pandas living in the Moscow Zoo.

Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Union of Artists of Russia, animal artist, graphic artist Irina Makoveeva shared her impressions of meeting pandas in various zoos around the world. The exhibition curator Natalya Krasnykh expressed hope that the exhibition would be interesting for all ages and invited those present to the Panda Day celebration, which will take place at the Darwin Museum on September 20th.

Svetlana Akulova, General Director of the Moscow Zoo, thanked the museum for its cooperation:

“The opening of the exhibition “The Adorable Giant Panda” is a special event for the Moscow Zoo. Since 2019, we have been participating in a program to preserve giant pandas together with our Chinese colleagues. And in 2023, our joint work led to a real miracle - the birth of the first panda in Russia, Katyusha. The whole country chose the name for the baby, and today she is known far beyond Russia as the “pink miracle”. The exhibition allows us to take a new look at the life of giant pandas, through the prism of science, care and the daily work of specialists. I thank the Darwin Museum for their cooperation and creation of this educational and truly warm project, which gives a wide audience the opportunity to learn more about the conservation of rare species"

The grand opening of the exhibition The Adorable Giant Panda