The Oleg Kushnirskiy Collection on View at the Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton

On February 26, 2026, the exhibition Icons: Old Believers and Their World opened at the Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the museum and the Russian Icon Collection project and will remain on view through August 30, 2026.

The exhibition features more than thirty Old Believer icons dating from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century from the collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy, along with rarely seen pieces from the Icon Museum and Study Center. Several of the works are being presented to the public for the first time. The project is curated by Professor Justin Willson (Yale University) and Elliot Mackin, the museum’s curator. The exhibition emphasizes the significance of the Old Believer icon as both an artistic and theological statement that emerged in response to the reforms of Patriarch Nikon and the seventeenth-century schism within the Russian Church. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century icons on display reveal the diversity of regional workshops and individual artistic manners, reflecting the painters’ commitment to preserving pre-Petrine iconographic models and the sixteenth-century Muscovite tradition, while at the same time adapting them to the aesthetic and spiritual demands of their own era.

The opening ceremony featured speeches by leading specialists in Russian icon painting and museum practice, including Irina Shalina, Leading Research Fellow, Department of Old Russian Painting, State Russian Museum; Natalia Komashko, Research Fellow at the Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art; Simon Morsink, Director of the Icon Museum and Study Center; Elliot Mackin, Co-Curator of the exhibition; Lutz Rickelt, Curator at Ikonenmuseum Recklinghausen; Konstanze Runge, Curator at Ikonenmuseum Frankfurt; Olga Strada, independent art historian and curator (Italy); Wendy Salmond, Professor at Chapman University (California); and Sergey Khodorkovskiy, art historian and icon collector.

On February 27, the Museum hosted a Study Day organized in conjunction with the exhibition. The program brought together scholars, students, and museum professionals for an in-depth discussion of Old Believer culture. Welcome remarks were delivered by Simon Morsink, Ilya Kushnirskiy (Director of the Oleg Kushnirskiy Collection), and Elliot Mackin. The keynote lecture was presented by Professor Peter de Simone (Utica University, New York) and focused on the history of the Old Believers. Elliot Mackin later led a curatorial tour of the exhibition.

Participants were given access to the Museum’s storage facilities and had the opportunity to engage directly with works from the Eastern Christian art collection beyond the exhibition galleries. The day concluded with an independent object study session followed by a professional discussion in which participants presented and examined selected icons of particular interest.

The exhibition at the Icon Museum and Study Center continues the Russian Icon Collection’s international exhibition activity and marks an important step in promoting Orthodox icon painting in the United States. You can explore the exhibition in greater detail in our video on YouTube. Follow our media channels for further updates and for the forthcoming in-depth publication dedicated to the exhibition.