On 7 May 2020, the State Hermitage and the magazine Sobaka.ru carried out a joint charitable action to benefit the Nochlezhka organization that helps the homeless.
Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the Hermitage’s Department of Contemporary Art, gave an online lecture entitled “The Artist and the Catastrophe in Past and Present”. His talk ranged over the topics of the apocalypse in art and artists’ perceptions of disasters and epidemics, as well as noting the important role culture has to play in the situation of a pandemic in the modern world.
During the live broadcast, viewers were able to make donations in support of Nochlezhka. The funds raised will be directed towards helping homeless people.