The Russian Cultural Centre, an institution that is subordinate to the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), and the Innosocium Foundation, the social platform of the Roscongress Foundation, have announced the signing of a bilateral cooperation agreement. Their partnership aims to jointly draw up a methodology for the development of cultural and creative industries in Russia’s regions as well as implement projects in these areas as part of efforts to support and replicate socially significant initiatives put forward by businesses, NPOs, and the public authorities.
The Innosocium Foundation and the Russian Cultural Centre previously organized the Art Team National Contest of Creative Industry Projects and launched the first crowdsourcing project for the gamification of training in Russia called the national online game development workshop for schoolchildren and students as part of the School of Future Presidents. This agreement will expand cooperation in these and other initiatives that aim to both support the creative and intellectual industries as well as other sociocultural areas, such as women’s leadership, patriotism, and assistance to the older generation.
One of the key initiatives of this cooperation will be the implementation of a joint programme to develop infrastructure for creative industries in the regions of the Russian Federation. The project will include the signing of an agreement on long-term cooperation and collaboration between the government of a particular region, the Russian Cultural Centre, and the Innosocium Foundation, the creation of a working group under the government that will include representatives of relevant agencies, public organizations, and the business community, a study of the current situation as regards the development of creative industries in the region as well as the drafting and implementation of a joint action plan. The regions that join the programme will take part in the annual national project ‘Cultural Capital. Cultural Leadership of Cities’. The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District will be the first region to sign such an agreement.
Another important focus of the joint work between the Russian Cultural Centre and the Innosocium Foundation is support for talented youth, and two projects are currently being implemented at the national level: the Innosocium National Contest of Social Projects as well as the Art Team National Contest of Creative Industry Projects. Innosocium’s social projects aim to attract the attention of young people to a wide range of urgent socially significant problems — from women’s leadership and youth entrepreneurship to the development of inclusion. The Art Team focuses on supporting initiatives for the creative cluster: from creating creative spaces to developing new regional cultural and creativity festivals.
Gamification projects have become another area in which the Russian Cultural Centre and the Innosocium Foundation are engaging in joint activities. As part of this partnership, the parties have provided support for the School of Future Presidents project to develop gaming practices in school and higher education — the national online game development workshop for teaching schoolchildren and students. The platform operates in crowdsourcing format so that anyone can offer their own ideas for game development, including schoolchildren and students themselves. The project’s expert group includes Marina Abramova, Director of the Russian Cultural Centre and a member of the Executive Board of the Russian Book Union, and Yelena Marinina, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation and Director of the Innosocium Foundation.
The Russian Cultural Centre and the Innosocium Foundation are also organizing a festival in a new format called Russian Creativity Week, which will be a key event for all representatives of creative and intellectual professions and young people who are interested in further developing these focuses. The festival is planned for September 2020 at Moscow’s Gorky Park. Russian Creative Week will bring together representatives from all 14 areas of creative industries — from IT and the development of computer games to cinema, design, and art — in one space for the first time and will captivate festival guests with an extensive entertainment, business, and educational programme.
In addition, the development of creative industries and support for talented young people will become a constant theme at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eastern Economic Forum, and the Russian Investment Forum.
«Support for creative industries is among the most important growth points for our country’s economy and developing the potential of our talented youth. Together with the Innosocium Foundation, we will join forces in an effort to create a major platform that can offer a balanced equal dialogue between regional governments, businesses, NPOs, specialists who are just starting out, and young people who are interested in realizing their creative endeavours. As part of the partnership, we are implementing many projects in various formats — both event- and research-based projects as well as those that are concentrated solely in the digital space — in order to involve all groups of audiences that are interested in the process», Abramova said.
«Our goal is to help young talents shape the future. We need to become a bridge between the great minds of our times — philosophers, sociologists, designers, architects, artists, writers, and opinion leaders — and promising representatives of the new generation. By organizing exhibitions, discussions, and awards, we are creating opportunities for the development of unconventional thinking and creativity. Supporting aspiring talents is all the more important because this is how young people can become intrigued by fresh modern ideas based on which they will subsequently create their own bright future. I am certain that the Art Team contest, the Russian Creativity Week festival, and the other projects that we are implementing together with the Russian Cultural Centre will become incubators and fertile ground for innovative ideas and creative developments. Unlike the traditional approach in which progress is seen solely as an achievement of engineering and scientific thought, we view it through the prism of creative activity and design, which is a key condition for the further harmonious development of our society», Marinina said.
Earlier in May, the Roscongress Foundation launched the Ideas Fund
database, which combines knowledge and suggestions that aim to improve
processes in various fields. Anyone can submit an idea by filling out a
questionnaire on ideas.roscongress.org and attaching a
presentation of the project.
