RUSSIA     2003

The Fund’s activities for much of the year have been focused on meeting the needs of the arts and cultural institutions of Russia. In this effort, we are most gratified to have enlisted the aid of Nadya Belyaeva, Director of the Perm State Art Gallery for over 20 years, who has agreed to serve as our seminar partner. The Perm Gallery is one of the leading art museums in Russia.

St. Petersburg

Small Museums/St. Petersburg, January 25-February 3

Seminar Leaders: Barbara Charles and Robert Staples

Barbara Fahs Charles and Robert Staples, principals and partners of the Interpretive Planning and Design consulting firm Staples & Charles Ltd., traveled to Russia in January to do the second of a series of three seminars designed to assist the State Russian Museum with the planning and execution of an exhibition of treasures from small regional museums. 

The five-day seminar included more than 30 directors and assistant directors from regional museums in various parts of Russia and focused on overall exhibition design, texts/labels, and the planning of auxiliary activities. 

As part of the seminar, the participants were given a detailed briefing on criteria for effective exhibitions. They were then assigned a number of museum exhibitions in St. Petersburg to critique. This proved to be a very popular exercise (despite the sub-zero temperatures) and one the participants felt could be used effectively with their own museums.

Future of Project

It remains quite uncertain as to whether and when the proposed exhibition will be mounted at the State Russian Museum. Barbara Charles and Bob Staples have volunteered to return if the exhibition is mounted and the seminar participants would find a critique/commentary useful.

Chelyabinsk

Concert Workshop - March 3-5

Workshop Leader: Bob Jones

At the request of Alexander Kolutursky, General Manager, Sverdlovsk State Philharmonic Orchestra and Chairman of Board of the Association of Russia Concert Organization, Bob Jones, a recent President, Executive Director, and Chief Operating Officer of the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted training sessions for twenty-six senior staff members from ten cities of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.

The seminar covered the basics of marketing; fundamental concepts of programming, planning, organizational development, budgeting and financial analysis. Major emphasis was also placed on fundraising as related to marketing. Additional work will be needed in the areas of basic management theory, overall strategic planning, and development and presentation of financial information. Another area needing attention is institutional governance.

Future

The Fund has agreed to a follow-on seminar with Mr. Jones, to be held in Ufa in February 2004. Some 10-12 managers of major orchestras are expected to attend.

Urals Theatre Group Program in NYC

In early August The Fund received an urgent request for assistance from the Consulate General in Yetaterinburg. Five of their leading theatre people had scheduled a study-tour in New York from August 21 to 26 to discuss major issues with theatre people and had not secceeded in getting any appointments beyond one with LORT. With the assistance of Fund Advisor Robert Lantz and producer Edgar Lansbury we were able to arrange significant appointments for this group. Friends of The Fund, Vlad Ekjvertine and his daughter Lea graciously translated for the group pro bono. We are most grateful to all for their generous assistance.

The Urals Theatre representatives were:
• Mr. Safronov, Director of the Musical Comedy theatre and President of the Association of the Urals Theatres,
• Mr. Korevitskiy, Vice President of the Association and Director of Tyumen drama and Comedy theatre,
• Ms. Gorkusha, Director of Actor’s House,
• Ms. Khabibova, Safronov’s Deputy and
• Ms. Gutman, Gorkusha’s deputy on economic issues.

They had a consultative visit with Eric Krebs at the Houseman Theatre and they toured the Houseman and Fairfax Theatres and learned about realities of off-Broadway producing. They also saw Serenade The World at the Houseman Theatre and Forbidden Broadway at the Fairfax Theatre, courtesy of Mr. Krebs. They visited the Roerich museum of the Russian choreographer. They had an important appointment with Gerald Schoenfeld, director of the Shubert Theatres who gave generously of his time and shared valuable information on managing and producing in America.

Fund consultant Ward Mintz, who was to conduct a seminar in Yekaterinburg, hosted a reception for them which Sally Yerkovich and Larry Tamburre also attended.

Petrosavodsk

Creating Cultural Institutions of the 21st Century - September 22-25
Seminar for Museums, Libraries and other Cultural Institutions

Seminar Leaders: Martin Sullivan, Barbara Franco

The Center of Cultural Initiatives (CCI) of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia hosted a four-day seminar in Petrozavodsk, to explore techniques for successfully creating change in cultural organizations.

The Fund team of Martin Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Historic St. Mary’s City, Barbara Franco, of the City Museum of Washington, Nadya Belyaeva, director of the Perm Art Gallery, Tatiana Kolpakava, of the State Russian Museum and Fund President Jillian Poole guided the participants in examining the changes needed in the libraries, theatres, museums, performing groups, folk arts and service organizations represented by the group if they are to effective in the 21st Century.

Participants were asked to prepare oral presentations profiling their institution, its mission, plans and boundaries. They then identified a number of events that necessitate change including such things as the acquisition of a new building, changes in funding, a new director, etc. They also shared some of their own experiences with change --their successes and failures-- as they presented institutional profiles, representing a wide spectrum of cultural organizations that included libraries, theaters, and museums, performing groups, folk arts and service organizations.

From these reports a number of common themes, strengths and needs emerged and strategies were developed. Training at all levels was a high priority, whether it was to preserve traditional crafts and folkways or to educate young people.  Identity and image for the Republic of Karelia and its distinctive cultural offerings was also a repeated theme. Social issues and responsibility appeared in many of organizational profiles and ranged from general issues of self-esteem to the need for public audiences to make better use of leisure time. Concerns about methodology, professional in-service training and taking better advantage of up-to-date practices and technology also appeared in many of the profiles. Education for citizens of all ages was a common goal for most of the organizations, and especially greater access to information held by museums and libraries

Participants then developed specific projects that could be used as case studies to outline the elements of a fundraising proposal with a focus on need, plan, organizational capability, personnel required, a budget and how to evaluate outcomes.  A clear seminar outcome was the consensus that groups collectively felt the need to develop partnerships with outside groups that could help achieve some of these objectives.

The Fund team put heavy emphasis throughout the seminar on developing line-item budgets; fund raising plans—and how to determine what you need, who might be willing to meet the need and how to approach potential funders. The importance of having concrete proposals with real and achievable goals was stressed. Finally, participants discussed with Team members the importance of evaluating results and measuring the outcomes of projects undertaken.

The level of sophistication of the participants and their readiness to adopt change and take advantage of new opportunities impressed the team. The presenters left feeling that there was great potential for Karelia to take advantage of its considerable cultural resources and to realize its capacity for a fully-developed, well- funded and well-promoted cultural tourism program. With leadership from the Center of Cultural Initiatives, Karelia seems poised to assess its resources, form partnerships among its cultural organizations and effectively market itself to both local and tourist audiences.  

Yakutsk

Museums and Education Seminar-September 29-October 3

Seminar Leaders: Sally Yerkovich, Sonnet Takahisa

In October 2000, The Fund conducted a general management seminar in Yakutsk led by Sally Yerkovich. The host institution, the National Arts Museum of the Republic of Sakha, subsequently requested that The Fund return to conduct a second seminar, this to focus upon museum education and the relationship between museums and schools. Sally Yerkovich and Sonnet Takahisa led this seminar.

As with the earlier Yakutsk seminar, support from the Ministry of Culture (now the Ministry of Culture and Spiritual Development) was strong. Restoration projects in the beginning stages three years ago are now completed and many new projects are underway. The Transfiguration Church is reconstructed, the Regionalism Museum opened its doors in a new building during our visit which coincided with a one-day UNESCO sponsored conference, “Dialogue: Museum and Society,” which was held in the newly-renovated National Library of the Sakha Republic. A former Printing House building in the heart of the city and near the government office building is being renovated to become the first home for the National Arts Museum in over half a century. Given that a permanent home for the Museum was but a dream during our last visit, the renovation of the old printing house, scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2004, is quite remarkable. Fund officials were told that The Fund’s initial seminar provided the impetus for much of this activity.

After a traditional blessing, the seminar began with a formal welcome from the Deputy Minister of Culture and Spiritual Development, Yuri Nikolaevich Kozlovsky. The seminar included sixty official participants, with between thirty and thirty-five attending at any one time during the five days. Participants came from throughout the Sakha region, with one representative coming from as far away as Chita. Teachers from universities and other institutes of learning, and museum educators from regional libraries and art museums attended. They represented institutions with staffs ranging from over fifty to as few as one or two. Many of the participants were older, demonstrating the difficulty that Russian museums are having in attracting younger people to museum educator positions. In Russia, as in many other countries, museum educators are among the lowest paid staff in their institutions.

Fund representatives Yerkovich and Takahisa outlined the challenges that museums around the world face at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Their presentation stressed the need for each museum to take an active role in its community, becoming a place for dialogue and debate as well as an active center for learning, and the benefits of partnering with like-minded organizations. They emphasized ways in which partnerships and collaborations strengthen educational programs and help build diverse audiences; how museums can create programs and exhibitions for a range of learning styles; and how cooperative and object-based learning take advantage of a museum’s resources and create better learning opportunities.

Representatives of the State Russian Museum made presentations about their work and discussed projects from which Sakha museum educators might benefit.

A discussion of program evaluation methods marked the final day of the seminar. This session, covered a wide range of topics, including how to develop a project’s goals, different kinds of evaluation techniques used in museums, and how to tie the development of project goals to evaluation criteria, thus creating a project with built-in assessment criteria.

The seminar concluded with a discussion of positive peer critiques, how museum professionals can work together to develop stronger programs and proposals. Many of the projects discussed, showed evidence of changed ways of thinking that had been adopted as a result of the seminar!

Yekaterinburg

Seminar for Cultural Leaders - October 28-31

Seminar Leaders: Ward Mintz, Larry Tamburri

This four-day seminar was informally titled “The New Work of the Arts.” Approximately 60 museum managers were enrolled and between 45-50 were on hand for all four days. Participants came from the Urals, parts of Siberia and as far southeast as Omsk. The attendees, the majority of whom were women, were of all ages. They were responsive and asked a variety of perceptive questions throughout the seminar. Simultaneous translation for all of the sessions and for the meetings in-between was provided by the Consulate General and proved extremely helpful to Seminar Leaders Ward Mintz and Larry Tamburri.

The first morning discussions covered various economic models for organizations, including those structured to make a profit and those not intended to make a profit, and the goals of each. Mission statements and the importance of defining the institution’s intended audience were stressed and several case studies were examined, among those the Newark Museum and the NJ Symphony.

In a session analyzing internal and external environments in which the institutions exist, and may prosper or fail, the discussion turned to marketing. Mr. Tamburri discussed the “5 P’s,” product, place, price, promotion and public relations as key factors in any good marketing program.

Fund-raising, or as other have called it “making friends,” was the focus of a session conducted by Ward Mintz. He emphasized that effective research was essential in planning meetings with prospective funders or preparing fund raising proposals.

Among the important concerns explored were:

• Internal communication in organizations
• Maslow’s management theories and staff self-actualization
• Staffing issues
• Methods for communicating effectively in the workplace
• Job descriptions
• Annual performance reviews
• Burn out
• The need to set priorities
• Delegation of responsibility

Future

At the conclusion of the sessions, Messrs. Tamburri and Mintz were strongly urged to return to conduct follow-up sessions in 2004.

Russian Projects for 2004

In addition to the activities noted above, the following activities are being developed in conjunction with our partner, The State Russian Museum; a follow-up seminar for art museums has been requested in Khabarovsk. This will be combined with a seminar in Kamchatka, a new region for The Fund. Presently under discussion are seminars in Murmansk for the North West Region, a seminar in Irkutsk or Omsk/Novosibirsk.

A follow-up visit to Ralph Applebaum’s 2000 seminar to create a visitor center in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg is being planned, and the film of his seminar “On the Banks of the Neva” is now ready for distribution.