D.S. Likhachev International Charity Foundation has reported about the implementation of its project called “Creative Training in Russia.” It provided opportunities for Russia-based creative training of American artists propagating classical Russian culture in the USA, and was realized under a grant program of the Russkiy Mir Foundation.
The internship program is now in its second year and is oriented at mature art professionals, such as writers, film and theater directors, sponsors and organizers of exhibitions and festivals. “We do not invite students, only real professionals, and masters of their trade. They are all deeply interested in Russia and they use this program as a way to find answers for their particular questions. Such activity will result in works of art capable of attracting attention of many Americans – films, books, and musical festivals devoted to Russia. This will help to show people in the United States a living Russian culture, and in the long run, such things will make our peoples closer to each other,” defined his goals Alexander Kobak, Executive Director of the Likhachev Foundation.
From the American side, media partners of the Likhachev Foundation are well-known American institutions such as the Library of Congress, the Foundation for Mutual Understanding, СЕС Artslink, the Kennan Institute, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), as well as participants of the 2008 program, who promoted the information campaign of the program.
Candidates for participation were chosen on a competitive basis. In 2009, a total of 42 applications were registered. On May 5, the expert council approved eight projects. The lucky participants came from New York, Washington and Los Angeles. They are well-known American artists, but for some of them, this was the first time that they worked with Russia-related projects.
A well-known playwright and drama teacher at the New York University, Leslie Lee, wrote a script for an autobiographical film about A.S. Pushkin and took advantage of this training program to visit memorial places connected with the poet’s life and to consult with experts. “To make my work authentic I needed to visit St. Petersburg, the place where Pushkin wrote his great poems and the place that he loved so much,” remarked Leslie Lee.
The dance historian, Elizabeth Candall, is working on a book called “Lidochka – the Lost Muse”, which is about the life of George Balanchine and his friend Lidia Ivanova, the story takes place in St. Petersburg of 1922-1924. In additional she is writing articles about St. Petersburg and Anna Akhmatova, for American magazines.
The architecture historian and curator of the Smithsonian Institute (Washington), Amy Ballard, has supervised a number of exhibitions of Russian history and art held in the USA, in particular the exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute devoted to the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. She came to study and photograph houses of Russian composers in the course of preparing her book called “The Guide to Musical History of St. Petersburg.”
Janet Fitch, a writer and the author of the popular novel “The White Oleander”, which was translated into dozens of languages, including Russian, is now a teacher of writing at the University of Southern California. Presently she is working on a new book where the action takes place in revolutionary St. Petersburg. A visit to St. Petersburg has allowed the writer to gather information that will add more historical authenticity to her work.
Composer and art director of a New York cultural center – Symphony Space, Laura Kaminski, annually organizes musical marathons devoted to different styles in music, ranging from classics to Broadway musicals. Such marathons often include more than 2,500 listeners, and their broadcasts are considered an important event in the cultural life of New York. Laura Kaminski plans to devote her 2010 marathon to Soviet music. In St. Petersburg, she met some musicians and invited them to come to New York and take part in this event.
Curator of the USSR and Russia section at the Aerospace Museum of the Smithsonian Institute (Washington), Cathleen Lewis, is working on a book about space exploration to be published in 2011, for the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight. One of the chapters will be devoted to Pavel Klushanzev, whose sci-fi films had a large influence on subsequent works of such Hollywood directors as Stanley Kubrick and Stephen Spielberg. In St. Petersburg, Cathleen Lewis met Klushantsev’s daughter and director of the “Lennauchfilm” Studio, where the film director worked. There she also studied the collection of coins and pennants connected with space topics, produced by the Mint. At the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, the writer reviewed materials about the famous pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki, who made a non-stop flight Moscow – North America in 1939.
Kristen Regina is the chief librarian of Hillwood Museum and Gardens in Washington, which is one of the largest private collections of icons and Russian art objects in the USA. Her St. Petersburg training was aimed at establishing contacts with Russian museum librarians and their involvement in activities of the Association of museum librarians. In addition to that, Kristen worked to prepare the visit of a group of museum librarians to Russia.
Art historian Scott Ruby supervises the section of Russian and East European art at the Hillwood Museum. He is preparing an exhibition called “From Samovar to a Glass of Vodka – the Russian Art of Drinking” devoted to history of various Russian drinks.
Depending on the contents of projects, organizers prepared an individual program for every trainee for the summer of 2009, which included visits to cultural establishments (museums, archives, and libraries) and consultations with experts. The partners of the program were such organizations as the Hermitage, the All-Russian museum of A.S. Pushkin, Literature and Memorial Museum of F.M. Dostoyevsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory and others.
Training sessions were held in the period from August 24 to September 6, 2009. In addition to individual consultations and visits to cultural establishments, a number of events with the participation of St. Petersburg cultural societies were organized. At the Dostoyevsky Museum was held a workshop, attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Russia – John Beyrle, and the U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg – Sheila Gwaltney, members of the city administration and journalists. Within the framework of the workshop, trainees presented their projects.
At the U.S. Consulate General, there was a reception attended by the U.S. Ambassador, who had come from Moscow specifically to meet the trainees. John Beyrle appreciated the project greatly and laid special emphasis on the fact that development of such initiatives takes cultural cooperation between the two countries to a new level. “Cultural exchange and the exchange between our countries is not only a one-way street, it is not only Russians coming to see America, but also more and more Americans coming here and receiving financial support from your side. This to me seems very important,” said the ambassador.
The training program ended in a meeting of American guests with the chairperson of the Committee for Culture in St. Petersburg and a mini workshop, where the trainees presented summaries about their visit and envisaged further developments of their projects.
It was decided to organize a reciprocal visit to the USA for seven Russian partners of the American participants of the program. This will allow the Russian side to participate in projects connected to Russian culture not only at their preparatory stage, but also at the stage of their implementation in the USA.
The primary importance of the program lies in its participants’ projects, which no longer remain in the realm of discussions only among a few Slavists. They are designed for a much wider audience that will have access to high-quality information that represents the cultural variety of Russia in a competent and well-intentioned way. Moreover, participation in international projects will facilitate integration of Russian experts and cultural establishments into the global informational field. It corresponds with one of the directions of the grant program funded by Russkiy Mir, which is the popularization of Russian culture and distribution of adequate information about our country.
