International and Regional Collaboration

The Institute for Cultural Programs develops and strengthens regional and international collaboration in the fields of culture and science, attracting the attention of an international audience to St. Petersburg.

• Issue publications about St. Petersburg cultural life, which are available in print and electronically in both Russian and English, and distribution in Russia and abroad
• Joint educational projects on art management with Sibelius Academy Continung Education, Helsinki
• Supply of information about cultural events to St. Petersburg’s city government website
• Participation in international seminars and conferences
• Preparation of applications and applying for grants of international organizations

Projects 2009

• “St. Petersburg Next Year. Calendar of Events”
• “Northwest Russia Calendar of Cultural Events”
• International Training Program “Creative Management of Music Festivals”
• Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum
• Participation in the International Congress “Creative Economy and Beyond”
• Presentations of St. Petersburg festivals in Turku and Helsinki
• Presentation of cultural potential of Southeast Finland in St. Petersburg

The Sibelius Academy Continuing Education (Helsinki) and the Institute for Cultural Programs
(St. Petersburg) have run their international educational project “Creative Management of Music Festivals” – a training program for music festivals organizers in Northwest Russia.

New educational project was followed by the international educational programs “Arts Management Towards Year 2003” (1999-2000) and “Music Festivals Management” (2005-2006) that had a great success in St. Petersburg.

The immediate objective of the “Creative Management of Music Festivals” project was to improve leadership and management skills of the local festival managers.

Central topics of the educational modules:

• Arts marketing, management and leadership
• Cultural entrepreneurship
• Cultural tourism

The project aim was to promote sustainable growth and internationalization of the Northwest Russian festivals. In order to promote the growth the project enabled the creation of a network for music festivals of the Northwest region. Furthermore the project developed ways to exchange best practices between Russian and Finnish music festivals.

The teachers of the program were all the experienced managers and experts in the sphere of culture, including manager of the Sibelius Academy Osmo Palonen, founder of “Pori Jazz” music festival Jyrki Kangas, production manager of the Helsinki Festival Kaarina Gould, program manager of the Centre for Tourism Studies of Joensuu Heidi Taskinen and many others.

The program “Creative Management of Music Festivals” was held in 2008-2009. The structure of the program consisted of four international modules which included business meetings and special events with participation of music festival managers, art agents and other experts from Finland, study trips to Finnish music festivals and personal and group work at project under the tutoring of international experts. Educational modules were held in the Institute for Cultural Programs in St. Petersburg. The course language of the program is English.

The international educational program “Creative Management of Music Festivals” was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education of Finland and the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture.

Institute for Cultural Programs coordinated the participation of the delegation from St. Petersburg to 10th Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum, which was held in Syktyvkar on 21-22 October 2009.

The Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum is a unique form of activity developed by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture to activate and promote direct cultural cooperation between civic organizations, cultural institutions and artists.

The Forum is a continuing process comprising two tasks: continuous partnership activities, including an annual Forum arranged alternately in Finland and Russia, and cooperation between the Finnish and Russian cultural administration. Both forms of action were initiated in 2000.

The Arts Council of Southeast Finland and the Institute for Cultural programs of St. Petersburg have invited cultural managers, tourist agents, artist associations, cultural authorities and Russian media to assist to the presentation of arts and cultural events of Southeast Finland that took place at St. Petersburg’s Committee for Culture.

The Arts Council of Southeast Finland and the Institute of Cultural programs of St. Petersburg decided to strengthen links in art and culture, and to act like a bridge between artist and cultural organizations of both countries. In 2008 the Institute had presented St. Petersburg cultural palette in Lappeenranta and Kotka and this presentation was the turn for the Arts Council to present Southeast Finland art and cultural life to St, Petersburg media and cultural agents.

One point of the international policy of the arts council of Southeast Finland was to strengthen cultural and artist exchange between St. Petersburg and the Finnish region in both directions and also to promote interaction between cultural authorities, artists associations and art managers.

Main features of the presentation:

• Arts council policy and cultural events in Southeast Finland
• Regional development and cultural events
• Borders, an opportunity for culture
• Imatra Big Band festival 26th year old
• Festival cooperation across borders