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Innosocium Foundation-ASI Working Group Held First Meeting in Charge of Developing Creative Industries and Supporting Cultural and Historical Heritage Projects

The New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow hosted a meeting of a working group that was jointly created by the Innosocium Foundation – the social platform of the Roscongress Foundation – and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives to develop creative industries and support cultural and historical heritage projects. The meeting was timed to the opening of the New Tretyakov Gallery exhibition in honour of the 175th anniversary of Vasily Polenov, one of the most prominent Russian painters and an innovator in landscape painting.

The group is in charge of conceiving and implementing systematic measures to support the development of regional brands and businesses, technology industries, national production, and creative projects. One of the group’s primary goals is to draft an agenda on ways to preserve traditions and historical heritage, support folk art, and develop national production in the regions.

The group, which is chaired by Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO and Innosocium Foundation Director Elena Marinina, includes Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House Deputy General Director Roman Karmanov, Lake Baikal Foundation for Environmental Applications and Research CEO Anastasia Tsvetkova, Art, Science, and Sport Charity Foundation Director Maria Krasnikova, Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO and Programme Director Armen Khachatryan, Presidential Grants Fund CEO Ilya Chukalin, State Tretyakov Gallery Deputy General Director for Development Tatyana Mrdulyash, Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation Managing Director Maria Morozova, Business Russia Vice President and Executive Committee Chairperson Nonna Kagramanyan, Russian State Library General Director Vadim Duda, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Partner Irina Gaida, NW ADVISORS Director Oleg Leonov, Soyuzmultfilm Film Studio Chairman of the Board Yuliana Slashcheva, and Social Investment Fund CEO Sergey Golubev.

The meeting participants pointed out the need for the regions to ensure the exchange of successful practices and develop an international agenda and cooperation on a global level, including using the tools of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the Innosocium Foundation – the social platform of the Roscongress Foundation – and other development institutions. They said special attention should be paid to the possibility of linking projects to events related to Russia’s presidency of the SCO in 2019–2020 and the BRICS in 2020.

During the meeting, the participants placed special emphasis on the fact that the goal of projects that are selected for inclusion in the group’s programmes should be to improve the quality of life of people living in the regions. Projects should already be in the implementation stage and have a measurable and systematic potential impact on the development of a region and regional identity, and their prospects in the international arena should also be taken into account.

“Russia is a huge country and we have a lot to be proud of in terms of our cultural and historical heritage. In order for our socioeconomic development to be a success, it is crucial to give priority attention to the prospects of the regions, their special features, and unique capabilities. Creating an environment for development, searching for key growth points, and supporting creative endeavours are we need to focus our maximum attention and efforts on with an emphasis on improving people’s quality of life”, Adviser to the Russian President Anton Kobyakov said.

“One of the working group’s key goals is to promote the preservation and development of traditions and historical heritage and support the regions. In this regard, the scope of our projects is expanding significantly”, Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO and Innosocium Foundation Director Elena Marinina said. She also expressed confidence that pooling together the resources of leading players in the social, cultural, media, financial, and other sectors would undoubtedly become a powerful driver and provide an invaluable contribution to the development of the creative and cultural life in Russia and its regions. The working group’s main job, she said, is to collect analytical material on creative industries and systematize them. She stressed that such industries will become the foundation of tomorrow’s economy. “They are divided into three segments around the world: in the North American region, it’s audio-visual art, media, and cinema. In the Far Eastern and Pacific region, it’s book publishing and media production. Europe is responsible for design and fashion. We need to figure out Russia’s place in this process”, she said.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Gulnaz Kadyrova said during the working group meeting that national manufacturing technologies could only be preserved in the regions by ensuring the succession of personnel. She added that the government, for its part, compensates for a portion of the costs incurred by crafts and arts enterprises. “We conducted an analysis of the development of the territories where the production facilities are located and concluded that most of them are located in small and medium-sized cities with a population of up to 100,000 people. In recent years, the outflow of the population fr om these cities amounted to 7.5%. We cannot support production without supporting the territories where they are located”, she said. Kadyrova said the Tetra project has been created for this purpose in order to develop territories with cultural and historical industries, which is supported by a number of ministries and departments. “Experts have identified eight types of territories and 32 indicators by which their status will be assessed. During the creation of the project, it also came to light that 70% of such territories have an unfavourable urban environment”, Kadyrova said.

“We are thrilled that the first meeting of the working group in charge of developing creative industries and supporting cultural and historical heritage projects was held at the Tretyakov Gallery simultaneously with the opening of the exhibition by Vasily Polenov. The Tretyakov Gallery is a place wh ere creative people from various professions find the information and inspiration they need. The museum is home to masterpieces of Russian art from the 11th century to the present day and helps us see trends in the development of art. We hope that we will become an even greater resource for all representatives of creative industries”, Deputy General Director for Development of the State Tretyakov Gallery Tatyana Mrdulyash said.

Russian State Library General Director Vadim Duda focused on the place of libraries in the creative industry during his address and said local and self-developing ecosystems need to be created in the regions. He put forward an initiative to hold a hackathon on how to make 40,000 Russian libraries part of a common ecosystem that supports creative industries.

Dulevo Porcelain CEO Pyotr Sivov spoke about existing barriers for manufacturers of cultural and historical products. Exports currently account for 10–15% of his company’s production, he said. “Entering international markets involves certification, which is not easy for arts and craft industry products, for example. We have to adapt the products to Western European certificates, and the Russian certification system is also very complicated”, he said. Sivov also spoke about the need to make the appropriate changes to state standards and to create a special distribution network.

“Our grant recipients include a number of projects related to the creative industry. Serving as a development institution in the social sphere, the Presidential Grants Fund aims to provide conditions to support a large number of public initiatives based on transparent and understandable rules and procedures. I would like to emphasize that we are very happy about combining our efforts with the Innosocium Foundation – the social platform of the Roscongress Foundation, with the ASI, and with the entire expert community as a whole in order to ultimately achieve a greater social effect”, Presidential Grants Fund CEO Ilya Chukalin said.

During his speech, Dmitry Pristanskov noted that Norilsk Nickel actively contributes to the preservation of the traditional lifestyle, habitat, culture, and historical heritage of the indigenous peoples of the North. With the support of Norilsk Nickel, Siberian Federal University and the Arctic Development Project Office are implementing a fascinating project connected with Taimyr’s smallest ethnic group, the Enets, to create Enets literature. “Norilsk Nickel believes supporting indigenous peoples is an extremely important social task that aims to improve the quality of their life and preserve the traditions and culture of the peoples of the North,” the company’s vice president said.

Rosatom Corporate Academy General Director Yulia Uzhakina, Art, Science, and Sport Charity Foundation Director Maria Krasnikova, Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation Cultural Programme Director Elena Konovalova, and Business Russia Vice President Nonna Kagramanyan also spoke about support for projects related to the creative industry and Russia’s cultural and historical heritage.

“At ASI, we receive a large number of proposals with creative projects from various cities and regions of Russia for which we need to consolidate the efforts of the entire expert community, development institutions, and representatives of government organizations and businesses in order to come up with systematic measures of support. The development of creative industries basically affects all areas of the country’s economy. This once again underscores the importance of the working group that has been set up as well as the more effective exchange of experience and best practices that already exist in our country”, Agency for Strategic Initiatives General Director Svetlana Chupsheva said.

21.10.2019


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