ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Library will present “St. Petersburg: Window on the East/Window on the West,” an exhibition devoted to the Russian city’s publishing history and the role it played in nurturing the arts at the turn of the 20th century.

This exhibition, drawing on the library’s rich collections, is presented in conjunction with “Celebrating St. Petersburg: 300 Years of Cultural Brilliance,” a multidisciplinary festival to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. The exhibition will run from Aug. 4 through Nov. 22 at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library on the U-M campus. Admission is free.

Correspondence, manuscripts, journals and monographs, city plans, graphics and digital images will illustrate the artistic activity that characterized the period known as the Silver Age of Russian Art. First editions by writers such as Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Osip Mandel’shtam and Vladimir Mayakovsky, a diary penned by Lily Brik and a publisher’s mark designed by Mstislav Dobouzhinsky also will be on display. Works by world-famous personalities in dance, theater and music, including correspondence between the artists Natalya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov about Sergei Diaghilev and hand-painted costume designs by Lev Bakst for Vaslav Nijinsky in the Ballet Russe, will be available for viewing.

A public program to mark the opening of the exhibit will feature Kelly Miller, a U-M graduate, who will present “St. Petersburg and Early 20th-Century Russian Literature and the Arts.” The program is at 8 p.m. Sept. 15.

Exhibition hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday- Friday and 10 a.m.-noon Saturday in the Special Collections Library on the 7th floor of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. During August, the library’s north lobby is open 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 1-5 p.m. Saturday. The library will be closed Sundays during August and on Labor Day. Fall hours beginning Sept. 2 are 8 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m.-2 a.m. Sunday. For more information about the exhibition, call (734) 764-9377.

“Celebrating St. Petersburg: 300 Years of Cultural Brilliance” is a multidisciplinary festival being sponsored by the University of Michigan during the fall semester. The festival will offer an exclusive exhibition of fine and decorative art on loan from the Hermitage Museum and will feature many well-known Russian performers in productions of drama, dance and music. For information on St. Petersburg festival events, visit http://www.umich.edu/~urel/stp/. Also visit http://www.lib.umich.edu.