Denis Grishkin / Vedomosti

Izhevsk officials are backing the unusual initiative as a means of educating the city's residents.

Authorities in the Udmurt capital have come up with a new way of encouraging locals to take an interest in the republic's art — by hanging paintings in one of the city's centrally located public toilets.

Izhevsk officials said in a statement Sunday that they were backing the unusual initiative as a means of educating the city's residents and that the toilet-museum would open on the city's Central Square on Sunday, Aug. 19.

According to the statement, visitors can expect to enjoy exhibitions of both Udmurt and Russian artists at the toilet-museum over the course of the year. The works of leading local painter Sergei Orlov will be the first to grace the walls of Izhevsk's latest cultural hotspot.

Irina Andreyeva, one of the project's organizers, told Interfax that the initiative would run as long as artists were keen to have their work exhibited and that entry would cost the same as at any public toilet in the city, 10 rubles (31 cents).