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Events
  • INTERNATIONAL FORUM “INDUSTRIALISM AND CULTURE”

There is still a question about the priority of investment in a particular area of urban life, when we think about the future of industrial cities. The development of technologies for renewal of industry, solving the environmental issue, enriching the cultural landscape, and searching for the answers to social problems represent the challenges that most cities with an industrial past are facing now.

Over the past ten years, most large industrial companies in Russia have implemented programs to support social and cultural projects in the cities, where they are located. But hardly any of the supported projects has led to the diversification of the city’s economy, created fundamentally new opportunities for self-fulfilment of local residents and been able to attract the number of young specialists that could be significant to the future of the city. The accumulated experience provides fodder for analysing errors, understanding the reasons for the success of some practices, and trigger for discussion on how to evaluate the effects of cultural projects and what requirements should be applied to them today.

When the issue on the criteria and terms for evaluating cultural projects is open, the representatives of culture are forced to compete with other spheres of city life for federal and city budgets. In a competitive environment, the discourse shifts towards the generally accepted economic indicators, but are they able to describe the effects of a creative economy? Should the creative economy compete with the economy of large industry, or can it become a space for cooperation between different spheres of city life? How does the logic of resource allocation and evaluation change, when the idea of competition is replaced by the idea of cooperation, and partnership takes the place of sponsorship?

The Forum experts will discuss the grounds for cooperation between cultural institutions and large businesses, share the success stories and failures in the projects implemented in Russia and abroad, and formulate features of cultural projects that can launch territorial development processes in industrial cities - in order to get closer to understanding, is there a chance for a creative economy in industrial cities of Russia?

The experience of Sobranie Fund and Magnezit Group will be represented at the forum by Natalya Nikiforova, Director for the Corporate Development and Strategic Communications Department of Magnezit Group.

Forum Website.

By Prior Registration only.