RUSSIA     2004

Ufa, Bashkortostan

Bob Jones, former president, executive director, and chief operating officer of the National Symphony Orchestra and vice president, music, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, led a seminar from February 9-13 for the Association of Directors of Concert Organizations of Russia (AsDiCOR) in Ufa, Bashortostan, Russia. The seminar, entitled “Strategic Planning for All the Activities of the Concert Hall”, was attended by thirty general managers of philharmonic societies in Russia.

Though the initial objective of the week-long seminar was to discuss vision, mission, strategy, and planning, it was clear immediately that this was exceedingly complex subject matter. The terminology and basic concepts were too unfamiliar and did not translate well into Russian. Therefore, the seminar’s goals were changed to focus on a concert hall’s operations. Mr. Jones discussed the development of core competencies from the American model of performing arts management and integrated it with strategic planning and leadership skills. Participants were launched on their own leadership journey in order to learn how to provide their organizations with a new vision and strategic and operational plans. The participants agreed that the most powerful breakthrough concept received from the seminar was the notion of “vision” as a precursor to planning, writing a mission statement, and evaluating performance.

Participants were enthusiastic about new concepts (leadership, self-assessment, vision, and mission), tools (strategic planning technology), and the specifics of American models of core competency best practices. Discussions were lively and the participants readily engaged in several exercises. They were given projects to work on, self-assessment instruments, and creativity exercises, all of which were explored interactively.

On February 9, Mr. Jones was presented to the press corps of the Bashkortostan Republic at a formal and well-attended press conference. Through this media coverage and two subsequent interviews during the week, the work of the Fund and this project was publicized regionally.

Mr. Jones met with Alexander Kolotursky, chairman of the Russian regional music association and leader of the Sverdlosk Orchestra, regarding his vision for the continuing professional development of his association membership. They developed a project that would provide for 10-12 concert managers to spend up to two weeks with American orchestras, observing American systems in practice and in situe. Mr. Jones agreed to help plan this project.

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Murmansk

How does one market a museum in a closed city? This was only one of the challenging questions faced by Karen Franklin and Ann Mintz during the four-day seminar program entitled “Changing Museums in a Changing World,” they facilitated March 29-April 1 in Murmansk, Russia. The answer is familiar to many museums: repeat visitation. In the context of a closed city, this means to build sustained relationships with the people who have access to the institution in this unusual environment. The three day seminar was held in response to a request from Olga Yevtukova, director of the Regional Art Museum in Murmansk. It followed a seminar in October 2001 given by Sally Yerkovich, Martin Sullivan and Karen Franklin, which dealt mainly with fundraising and planning. The host requested that this seminar focus on audience, marketing, and partnerships, with additional attention given to fundraising. Participants included 22 representatives of regional museums as well as eight staff members from the Regional Art Museum.

Specific topics that were addressed during the four day seminar included how to create a mission statement, audience development, programs as a strategy for audience development, marketing and developing a marketing plan, fundraising, developing a narrative for a grant proposal, budget development, and characteristics of successful partnerships.

Participants viewed a video made at a previous Fund program in St. Petersburg, which featured noted American exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum. This led to discussions of the changing relationship of museums with their communities, the importance of ongoing dialog with audiences, and the important role in exhibitions of narrative and multiple points of view. NB This video can be seen on The Fund’s website.

The seminar format included both theoretical and practical information, with many opportunities for small group activities. Five institutions were created for the purpose of the seminar, so that the small groups were working with theoretical institutions. They wrote mission statements for these institutions, developed programs targeted to specific audiences, created budgets for these programs, and wrote narratives for a grant application in support of funds for these programs. Each group presented their work and received both positive feedback and constructive criticism. The final activity was a roleplaying exercise in which each group had the opportunity to do an oral presentation requesting funds for their program.

The seminar topic was not only of interest to the participants, it attracted the attention of the local media as well. An article on the seminar appeared in the local newspaper, and both television and radio journalists appeared at the Regional Art Museum to cover the opening session and interview The Fund’s consultants and the Regional Art Museum’s Director.

To close the seminar, Tamara Yacovleva of the Russian State Museum presented plans for a traveling exhibition that will tour smaller cities throughout Russia. The theme is “Three Centuries of Russian Art.” The Regional Art Museum in Murmansk is under consideration as a venue for this exhibition. Discussion is now under way about the establishment of a professional association that will serve the museum professionals of the Kola Peninsula. To encourage ongoing communication and the establishment of a professional network on the Kola Peninsula, the consultants requested that the names and contact information for all participants be distributed before the end of the four-day seminar.

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St. Petersburg

The seminar, “Peter’s Gates: Information Center of the North-West Region”, was held on April 7-9, 2004 in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was led by Jillian Poole and Ralph Appelbaum, president of Ralph Appelbaum Associates. The organizing committee of the seminar included the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg and the Foundation of Development of the Peter and Paul Fortress (Saint-Petersburg City Museum Foundation). Directors and representatives of the Northwest museums took part in the seminar.

The goals of the seminar were twofold. Seminar participants needed to focus on creating an Information Center in the Gosudarev Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in order to combine cultural and tourist information of the North-West region into one integrated system. By doing so, both the museums and tourists programs of the North-West region would be introduced to Information Center visitors and Internet users. The seminar also sought to facilitate interaction among the museums in the frame of inter-regional programs.

The first day of the seminar was devoted to introductions by the participating museums. Jillian Poole underlined the importance of the seminar in understanding the general concept of the Information Center and its role in attracting tourists to the North-West region. Ralph Appelbaum discussed museum development and promotion in the United States. Mr. Appelbaum highlighted the importance of choosing a proper strategy for a museum while taking into consideration cultural and historical heritage.

On the seminar’s second day, Mr. Appelbaum presented the project “Festival of Philadelphia”. Using this example, he explained structure and sequence of a material’s presentation, the importance of visual presentation, and proposals for different groups of sponsors.

All participants of the seminar were then divided into three working groups. The first task was to discuss the Information Center and the key reasons of its importance. The participants were then asked to define specific characteristics of the Northwest region that could be used by tourists to create associative images about the place. Finally the participants were asked to design the Information Center.

The final day began with a presentation by Alexander Bokmarev on the structure of an Internet portal to the Information Center. Mr. Appelbaum underlined the fact that the key to organizing the Center is to understand the tourist’s motivation to visit to the Northwest museums. He offered the participants ideas on how to create strong motivation and, therefore, attract visitors to the region. Mrs. Poole then discussed fundraising and methods for obtaining financial support.

As a result of the seminar, the joint project of creating the Information Center of the Northwest museums in the Gosudarev Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress was formed. Additionally, extensive discussions were held with both Fortress personnel and the State Museum of Political History regarding future Fund/Appelbaum cooperation realizing these proposals will be dependent upon funding.

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St. Petersburg

The Fund’s vice president, Sally Yerkovich, participated in the spring meeting of art museum directors from across Russia from June 15 - 17 in St. Petersburg. “Strategies for Conservation and Broadening Museum Audiences” was attended by forty-seven directors of Russia’s regional museums from as far away as Siberia and the Russian Far East. Ms. Yerkovich spoke about The Fund’s work in Russia, particularly with the Russian State Museum, which has involved conducting seminars on a diversity of topics. She discussed how the work of The Fund has changed over the years to meet the changing needs of the Russian museum community, as well as to reflect changing trends in museum practice. She also spoke on the importance of collaboration and partnership both in developing audiences and in seeking funding. A number of the participants expressed an interest in upcoming seminars, and others discussed, both with Ms. Yerkovich and the Russian State Museum, the possibility of holding seminars in their regions in the future.

A focus of many of the other presentations at the conference is the Russian State Museum’s new “Project Russia.” This ten-year program involves three main components: 1) A traveling exhibition of the Russian State Museum’s “Three Centuries of Russian Art” to three regional museums a year; 2) The creation of an exhibition of the regional museums to be displayed in St. Petersburg; and 3) The development of a data base containing images, data, and audio cataloguing of the collections of the Russian State Museum and Russia’s regional art museums. This database will be a pedagogical tool and will be the basis for creating virtual exhibitions and programs.

President Vladimir Putin is considering the privatization of museums in Russia. This is an issue against which the Russian Museum is lobbying and, understandably, it is an issue of great concern to the museum directors, as they see government support for their institutions continue to erode. Private philanthropy (foundation, individual, and corporate) is not making up the difference. In fact, the laws of many of the regions do not create an incentive for donations to cultural institutions. It would seem advisable for The Fund to continue to identify museum and/or other cultural institution directors who have had success in dealing with this situation and continue to involve them in seminars.

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Kamchatka & Kharbarovsk, Siberia

Kathleen Charla, an independent arts consultant, and Lyndel King, director and chief curator at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minnesota, traveled to Khabarovsk and Kamchatka, Russia for two four-day seminars on cultural institute management. The Fund is deeply grateful to Tara Rougle, public affairs officer, and Ludmilla Kourzenko, cultural assistant, of the American Consulate General in Vladivostok, for their help in organizing these seminars.

The first seminar began on Monday, September 6 at the Far Eastern Museum in Khabarovsk. While the original list of participants had 21 names on it, there were, disappointingly, only 12 active participants. Several of the participants were from outside the city of Khabarovsk. While the group was small, its members were highly motivated, interested and active in their participation. Ms. Charla and Ms. King were, however, perplexed to learn that Valentina Zaporozhskaya, the museum’s director, had refused a small grant from the American Consulate to support the attendance of more participants.

A further disappointment of these seminars was that our Russian seminar partner, Nadea Belyaeva, director of the Perm Art Gallery, failed to arrive in spite of confirmed reservations. The reasons for this are not known.

Ms. Charla and Ms. King first outlined the objectives of the seminar, which included mission, audience research, development and marketing, branding, financial management, and fundraising. In the afternoon, the group discussed mission and made team assignments. Each team worked together to create an imaginary museum or cultural institution that they defined and refined over the course of the seminar, incorporating the topics of the day.

On day two, Ms. Charla and Ms. King covered audience, audience research, developing effective programs based on that research, and reaching your audience. The third day was spent discussing budget, fundraising, finding sponsors, grants and philanthropy, and the pros and cons of having a board of advisors.

The most outstanding and gratifying part of the seminar was the work of the teams. The four teams developed unusually creative institutions, and were enthusiastic and proprietary about their “institutions”. The ideas included a “City Museum”, “Water Museum”, “Regional Museum of Children’s Arts”, and a “State Toy Museum.” The teams understood the concepts that had been introduced and applied them in highly creative ways. The seminar concluded with a graduation ceremony, where each participant was presented with a certificate, followed by a champagne reception, courtesy of the American Consulate General of Vladivostok.

While in Khabarovsk, Ms. Charla and Ms. King were invited by one of the participants to talk to his class at the State Pedagogical Institute. The class was a public relations class, the first of its kind at the Institute, or in Khabarovsk for that matter. The students were excited to work in this “new” field. There were many questions about the field in general, how to get started in it, what’s the best experience, etc.

The second seminar was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka. Several of the 25 participants were from museums and quite a few were from libraries. While financial sponsorship for cultural institutions is less possible in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky than in Khabarovsk, the region does attract a fair number of European and American tourists. The tourists come for the hunting and fishing, but the regional museums have an opportunity to attract tourists who are stranded by inclement weather—which seems to be a regular occurrence.

Though the seminar was similar to the one in Khabarovsk, a major emphasis of this seminar was attracting audiences. One participant remarked that the concept of “user friendly” was new – she’d only learned it at the seminar. Olga Yefimova, the director of the regional history museum and a seminar participant, wrote about the seminar as follows:

“I do feel it was very helpful and productive. You did your best to make complicated things easier to perceive…. I liked the idea of transformation of the museum from about something to the museum for somebody.”

In fact, museums are frequently considered boring by people just because they are full of things that people know nothing or very little about and they do not find much explanation to what they see. You tried to explain the idea that everything at the museum must be logically connected: its mission, programs, exhibits, etc.

Also the atmosphere of the seminar was very friendly and I don’t think it is always ready to achieve this since almost all the people in the room were rather experienced in working in cultural institutions and you had to change some of their ideas and ways things are presented in Russia. Some things you talked about are absolutely or pretty new for our cultural intuitions (mission, philosophy, etc.) I do hope now people understand better that it is really necessary to think about such things, too.

As in Khabarovsk, Ms. Charla and Ms. King were able to conclude the seminar with a champagne reception, thanks to the generosity of Tara Rougle and the American Consulate in Vladivostok. Certificates of participation were presented to all of the attendees.

Bella Ivanova, director of the regional library, asked The Fund to return to Kamchatka to do a follow up seminar. Ms. Charla and Ms. King indicated willingness to return and conduct a more in-depth seminar on any topic of interest to the audience.

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Yekaterinburg

Christine Miles, director of the Albany (NY) Institute of History and Art, and Ward Mintz, executive director of The Coby Foundation, traveled to Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, for “International Seminar—Museum Management”, a seminar for museum professionals from throughout the Urals region. This was a follow-up seminar to one conducted last year by Mr. Mintz and Lawrence Tamburri, currently president of the Pittsburgh Symphony. This seminar’s subject matter was based on feedback from last year’s seminar; the focus was on regional museum issues, such as the challenges of running institutions outside of major urban centers, legal issues, programs for young people, and volunteering.

The seminar was attended by sixty participants and lasted for three days. It was hosted and managed by Olga Pichugina, the director of the Fine Arts Museum, and her staff. Other presenters included Tatiana Kolpakova and Julia Chuvaeva of the State Russian Museum. Ms. Kolpakova has been The Fund’s partner for many years and considers that relationship to be important in helping to raise the skill levels of Russian museum personnel. Seminar participants also heard from Tatyana Troshina, chairman of the Museum Management Department at the Ural State University, on the subject of legal issues of concern to museums. The seminar was partially funded by the American consulate in Yekaterinburg.

Ms. Miles and Mr. Mintz each offered three presentations. On October 12, the seminar’s first day, Ms. Miles discussed her challenges and successes in transforming the Albany Institute of History and Art into a vibrant institution with a mix of funding sources that now welcomes its entire community. It was clear that some of the activities she discussed, such as A Festival of Trees at Christmastime that both raised funds and attracted thousands, were very appealing to the attendees.

Mr. Mintz presented the topic “Attracting Audiences”, which ranged from outdoor signage and the information desk to how exhibitions are presented. He linked that to a new permanent history exhibit on “Working in Brooklyn” at the Brooklyn Historical Society. It showed a variety of interpretive strategies for different age groups and was followed by a discussion on what strategies have and have not worked.

The next day, the representatives from the State Russian Museum made their presentations. Tatiana Kolpakova gave a case study of a museum collaboration in nearby Karelia, which involved a loan of major works from the Russian Museum. She also talked about efforts to share Russian Museum collection resources through the Internet. Ms. Chuvaeva discussed her recent internship at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg. She was able to illustrate the transition German museums are making to a more American model of museum operations. Ms. Chuvaeva explained her belief that German museums are 20 years behind American museums and Russian museums are 20 years behind the Germans.

That afternoon Ms. Miles did a presentation on a variety of children’s and family programs, and the ways in which the Institute uses these programs to both further its mission and build its audience and membership.

On the seminar’s last day, Ms. Miles made a presentation on corporate support, which covered benefits corporations receive including how they get acknowledged, and the benefits for corporations that want to use the Institute’s public spaces for entertaining. Mr. Mintz followed with a presentation on volunteering. The class divided into groups by discipline and created job descriptions for a volunteer position. They then presented their descriptions to the class.

A new evaluation was handed out for the participants to complete, and certificates were awarded to the seminar participants. Another seminar is planned for next year that will focus on programs for children and young people. Ms. Kolpakova acknowledged that the seminars in Yekaterinburg are the only ongoing, regionally based professional development seminars for museum professionals in the entire country. She sees The Fund as her ongoing partner.

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St. Petersburg

In December, Jilllian Poole went to St. Petersburg for consultations at the request of the Fortress of Peter and Paul, The Museum of Political History and the State Russian Museum. She also met with Alexander Margolis, general director, International Foundation for the Renaissance of Petersburg- Leningrad, and Olga Pichugina, director of the Fine Arts Museum in Yekaterinburg, who has organized Fund museum seminars in her city.

On the basis of discussions, the following action steps were agreed upon:

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