country
activities

Consultants
Ralph Appelbaum • James C. Armstrong • Teresia Bush • Kathleen Charla • Patricia Ciraulo • Martis Davis • Paul Elicker • Karen Franklin • Jessica Glass • Wayne Harvey • Jay Levenson • Jack McAuliffe • Pam Myers • Gary Osland • Jack Pascarosa • Jillian Poole • Jane Safer • Julian Spalding • Ma ry Delle Stelze r • Cathy Sterling • Martin Sullivan • Sally Yerkovich • Deborah Ziska

Activities Summary

Novosibersk
In mid-May, The Fund sponsored Patricia Ciraulo, former Deputy Director of the Russian National Orchestra, to participate in a seminar organized by the Novosibersk Philharmonic on "Contemporary Concert Management; Life With or Without Marketing ." Directors and managers of various music organizations from the Novosibersk region and other cities in Siberia were invited to participate. Presenters were selected for their experience and success applying Western models of arts management to Russian organizations. The two-day seminar was well planned with alternating periods of presentation, question and answer and discussion, ending with a practical training exercise.

Ms. Ciraulo focused her remarks on the application of modern methods for non-profit management in the Russian market. She discussed approaches to marketing music in similar fashion to marketing a product. Elements such as enthusiasm for and belief in one's product, balancing tradition and innovation, flexibility, participation, expansion, approachability, awareness and extension to other levels of interaction were discussed and demonstrated in materials from the Russian National Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

St. Petersburg and North West Territory
In May, Alexander Margolis, head of the International Charitable Foundation for the Renaissance of St . Petersburg-Leningrad met with Jillian Poole and the directors of the Peter and Paul Fortress to assess results f rom the December 2000 seminar led by Ralph Appelbaum for museum directors in the Leningrad Oblast. We were encouraged to learn that as a result of the seminar, the governor of Vologod had expressed an active interest in the possibilities inherent in developing the museum community of the region. The Association of Museum Workers had applied for and received a grant from Soros to buy computers and create an Internet website for 200 museums of the region in order to advertise services they can offer. Further discussions centered on a program for a permanent joint exhibition for the museums of the region. In view of an already overcrowded calendar for St. Petersburg in 2003, The Fortress made a firm commitment to provide material resources, personnel and space to present such a permanent exhibition in 2004.

The Fund agreed to provide various types of training for the region, and possibly to run a seminar on website development and design for the

Fund team leaders Deborah Ziska (left) and Pamela Myers (right) with translator Olga Reva (center) in Nizhniy Novgorod

Nizhniy Novgorod Seminars
From May 28 to June 2, The Fund conducted a seminar on "Options in Museum Design" for museum directors in Nizhniy Novgorod. The topic was new for The Fund and was developed for an audience that had already attended at least one Fund management seminar. Forty-three participants from thirty-one museums attended the seminar.

Fund presenters were Pamela Myers, Director of the Asheville Museum, Deborah Ziska, Information Officer of the National Gallery, and Jillian Poole. Drawing on their wide institutional backgrounds, The Fund team lead the group through four days of lively lectures and interactive breakout group exercises to explore the participants greatest concerns and provide concrete guidance. The principal themes emphasized were the process of designing the exhibition schedule, the rationale for selection of exhibitions, and the constellation of program activities that must be designed to surround it, and the media activities needed to support these programs.

Other issues raised by participants that The Fund team addressed were:

1. Integrating museums into the community and getting your staff out into the community;
2. Acquiring contemporary art;
3. Issues in and methods of re-hanging the permanent exhibition;
4. Uses of surveys and statistics;
5. Problems connected with over-visitation;
6. Commercial conflicts;
7. Evaluating curatorial productivity and outside conflicts;
8. Problems with Ministries or other bosses and ways to lobby them;
9. Building collections;
10. Issues of "dumbing-down";
11. Virtual exhibitions;
12. Serving your artistic community.

Murmansk
At the request of The State Russian Museum, The Fund conducted a museum management seminar for regional art museum directors and cultural leaders in Murmansk, Russia from October 9-12, 2001. Thirty participants attended the seminar, which was hosted by the Art Museum of Murmansk. The seminar was fashioned along the lines of similar management seminars conducted by The Fund over the past six years in other regions of Russia.

Sally Yerkovich, President and Chief Executive Officer of The New Jersey Historical Society led The Fund team in Murmansk, which included Karen Franklin, Director of The Judaica Museum of The Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale and Martin Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Historic St. Mary's City. Tatiana Kolpakova, Director of the Department of Regional Museums of the State Russian Museum also participated in the program.

Participants in breakout session in Murmansk

Fund team in Murmansk: Sally Yerkovich (far right), Martin Sullivan (2nd from right), Karen Franklin (3rd from right), and translator Olga Reva (2nd from left)

Yekaterinburg
In early December, Jillian Poole participated in a videoconference in Washington, D.C. organized by the State Department with directors of the museums from the Yekaterinburg region of Russia. The program focused on how to conduct effective fund raising for cultural programs. At the conclusion of the videoconference, participants indicated that they would like The Fund to offer a full seminar to the cultural leaders of their region.

The Fund's Handbook

Videoconference group from Yekaterinburg (Inset: Jillian Poole)

Future Work in Russia - 2002

Museum Libraries of Russia
In response to a request from the State Russian Museum, The Fund will send Allen Townsend, Arcadia Director of Library and Archives, Philadelphia Museum of Art to St. Petersburg in May to consult with library directors .

Exhibitions of Masterpieces from Small Museums
With assistance from the Open Society Institute, the State Russian Museum is planning an exhibition of masterpieces from some thirty museums from smaller towns in Russia. This is the first time that the Russian Museum has planned to devote such resources to small cities' museums. In preparation for the exhibition, the Russian Museum has requested assistance from The Fund for conducting two seminars for museum personnel involved. The first seminar will concentrate on concept design and the second on interpretative design. Barbara Charles, Partner and Principal of the Alexandria, Virginia-based design firm, Staples and Charles will lead the project for The Fund with Sandra Lorimer, an independent museum consultant from Ontario, Canada.

Deputy Directors
The State Russian Museum has requested The Fund to provide a team of experts to address the spring meeting of the deputy directors of museums throughout Russia. The main focus of this meeting will be on exhibition planning and design. The Deputy Directors program will be the first time this group - the people in museums who are actually responsible for the planning, conceptualizing and organizing exhibitions as well as fund raising and other management activities - has received a program designed specifically for them. The program reflects a greater understanding and acceptance on the part of the directors of the primary role of deputy directors and most specifically their role in creating exhibitions. The directors have also grown increasingly concerned that their deputies have not received adequate training. The program also reflects the Russian Museum's growing interest in exhibition design issues.

The Russian Museum plans to hold the program both in St. Petersburg, so that participants can study and discuss current exhibitions, as well as in a location outside of the city where intensive workshops can be held. The Russian Museum anticipates that some thirty deputies will attend the program.

The project will be led by Pamela Myers, Director of the Asheville Art Museum and Patrick Sears, Deputy Director of the Freer Gallery of Art

Visiting Gorky's childhood home, Nizhniy Novgorod

Ufa
The Fund will present a management training seminar in the Ufa region of Russia in early fall 2002. This will be organized along the lines of previous management seminars held for regional museums of Russia under the auspices of the State Russian Museum. Sally Yerkovich will lead The Fund team with two other expert consultants.