Magnezit museum became a winner of the XII Grant Contest A Changing Museum in the Changing World.

While congratulating the staff of the museum with the victory in Museum Design nomination, the organizers of the contest emphasized that Magnezit is the first museum of Chelyabinsk Region to win a prestigious contest. This year, 424 projects took part in the Contest, which exceeds the number of the previous year by one third. The Council of Experts selected 20 winners. They included cultural institutions, non-commercial organizations, municipal and private museums from central and North-West Russia, Ural, Primorye, Volga region and North Caucasus.

“We submitted the project on modernization of museum space From the Museum of the Plant to the Museum of Knowledge to the contest,” told Galina Golovko, the head of Magnezit museum. “The basic idea of the changes is the improvement of the prestige of knowledge, education of the new generation focused on solving the problems raised by the modern age.”

The grant fund of the contest amounted to 25 mln. roubles. The fund was established to render financial support to the best museum projects. The winners were defined in several nominations. In 2015, the most popular were Museum and Local Community and Museum Start. Seven projects selected for the grant support are aimed at involvement of local communities, preservation of nonmaterial heritage, development of territories. Six winning projects include new museum initiatives suggesting the forms, services and technologies of museum work innovative for museum practice. Four best project in Museum Design nomination set design missions, and following their successful implementation they might become an example for Russian museums.

The projects of Open Collection nomination are aimed at showing three new collections to the general public. The presentation of the winning projects and awarding ceremony will be held at Museum Guide forum. It will take place on 14 June in the framework of Intermuseum-2015 All-Russian Festival which has become a modern platform for professional communication and demonstration of achievements of museums of Russia and foreign countries.

On Sunday, 14 June, the ceremony of awarding the winners of the XII Grant Contest arranged by V. Potanin Charity Fund, A Changing Museum in the Changing World, took place in Moscow at Museum Guide forum in the framework of Intermuseum-2015 International Museum Festival. The Group was represented by Galina Golovko, the head of Magnezit museum.

The project on modernization of Magnezit museum, From the Museum of the Plant to the Museum of Knowledge, became a winner in the nomination of Museum Design. The organizers of the contest believe that the project, following its successful implementation, may become a reference for other Russian museums. By solving purely practical tasks, including reasonable use of the available areas, compact storage of numerous exhibits, convenient internal logistics, the possibilities to transform the space for temporary expositions, the design suggests building of interactive relations with the spectators, turning the museum from a repository of artefacts into a platform for gaining knowledge and live communication.

The museum of the Group makes the visitors acquainted with more than a century history of magnesite mining and production of refractory materials at South Ural. It keeps unique exhibits: documents, photos, awards, devices and mechanisms. At the same time the museum goes beyond demonstration of the technology evolution, it tells about the importance and prestige of the profession, about the impact of the refractory industry on other sectors of economy, about its connection with significant events in the life of the country.

To recap, the winners of the XII Grant Contest, A Changing Museum in the Changing World, were defined on 23 April. The contest of this year expanded the participation boundaries for various organizations: in addition to state and federal budget institution, non-commercial organizations, industry-sponsored, municipal and private museums took part in it. This year, the contest received 424 project applications. The Regional Council of Experts marked 63 projects for the final stage, and the Contest Council of Experts selected 20 winners.

The key subject of Intermuseum-2015 festival was Development of the Museum is the Development of the Territory, and its main idea was more active participation of the museums in shaping the surrounding territory and cultural space. The event combined the exhibitions of more than 270 museums of Russia, CIS and Europe. The professional community could visit workshops, lectures, discussions and round tables arranged for it.

Reconstruction of Magnezit Group museum (13.8 Mb)

Magnezit Museum has become the winner of the first in Russia Corporate Museum contest in the Exposition of the Year nomination.

More than 20 corporate museums applied for the contest. 16 museums from 10 cities reached the final. The winners were decided in five nominations: the museum of the year, the exhibition of the year, the exposition of the year, the open museum and the interactive museum.

The contest was held in two stages. At the first absentia stage, the participants delivered their works in one or several nominations. In the end, the finalists presented their projects at the final stage held in Perm on 22-23 March in the framework of the Creative Laboratory. Among the finalists were the largest and nationally famous corporate museums holding open air exhibit areas, parks of machinery and equipment real models, including North Blast-Furnace museum complex (Severny Tube Plant), which has become the best in the Museum of the Year nomination, the Museum of Perm Artillery (Motovilikha Plants), the winner of the Open Museum nomination, and others. For more information about the participants and the results of the contest visit the website of the contest organizer, Perm Representative Office of the Russian Public Relations Association (RASO, Perm, http://raso.perm.ru/projects/corp-museum/). 

“The Exposition of the Year nomination, won by Magnezit Museum, embraced the projects of new permanent expositions,” says Galina Golovka, the head of the museum. “The assessment criteria included compliance of the exposition with the museum profile and subject, compliance with the modern development trends of the museum industry, as well as interesting design solutions, work with target audiences, information and marketing strategy efficiency.”

These very features distinguish the renovated Magnezit Museum. Only within 10 months of the last year (taking into account the closure of some rooms for the final reconstruction) the museum welcomed more than 7 thousand visitors. The excursion schedule is sometimes set up for three weeks ahead. The most frequent museum visitors include students, school and preschool children, notably that the youngest are 4-5 years old. For this reason the experts gave big points not only to the museum exposition, its design, thematic and technical content, but also to the methods of work with various audiences.

“Magnezit” Museum wins awards of the All-Russian Corporate Museum II Contest, the initiator and official organizer of which is Non-Profit Partnership Perm Representative Office of Russian PR Association.

The contest took place on November 7-9 in Perm in the format of a creative forum. In the final, 44 participants from 32 cities of 7 constituent entities of the Russian Federation submitted 92 projects. The winners were selected in 17 categories.

“Magnezit” Museum won 2 awards: it got the 2nd class diploma in the Best Corporate Museum category, and became the winner in the "Museum for Future" category, in which it overtook the leading corporate museums of the country, including the Russian Railways Museum (Russian Railways JSC, Saint Petersburg), museum and exhibition center of Apatit JSC Kirov Branch, museum of Yantar Shipyard (Kaliningrad), the central museum of MiG Russian Aircraft Building Corporation JSC (Moscow), and others.

- The contest was impressive in its scale and quality of projects presented,” says “Magnezit" Museum director Galina Golovko. - It should be mentioned that this event provides an opportunity not only to present one's own activity, but also to exchange experience with colleagues and get assessed by professionals from the museum community. Once again I saw that one can always learn something to improve one's work.

Apart from presentations, the forum participants enjoyed an intense educational program by the leading experts and professionals. For example, independent consultant in museum design, honourable worker of culture of the Russian Federation Nikolay Nikishin analysed the problems of corporate museum community in his speech “Corporate Museums of Russia. Impossible is Possible”. Director General of TEK Communications Development Center, editor in chief of TEK. Development Strategy magazine Irina Esipova presented her Communications in the Era of Changes master class. Head of The Day of Ra workshop Lubov Yashmanova delivered a speech called "Innovations in Classics" dedicated to invention and implementation of the most bold and creative projects. Director for Development of Metamorphosis Museum Decoration Bureau Irina Kiryukhina provided recommendations on corporate museum establishment and development in her presentation called Appearance of a Corporate Museum.

For the first time, the Corporate Museum contest took place in Perm in last March. That time, exhibition projects were presented by 16 museums from 10 cities of the country. In particular, “Magnezit” Museum that won in the "Exposition of the Year" category.

Three projects of the Magnezit museum are finalists of “Corporate Museum”, the third all-Russian contest.

This year, the competition brought together 62 corporate museums from 37 Russian cities. The expert council evaluated 123 projects in 19 nominations. Projects to be defended online were short-listed and reached the final.

There were 60 applicants to win 14 nominations according to the short list of the contest. Projects in five other nominations are defended online in March. The best ones are defended offline at the Forum of the contest, which is scheduled to take place on April 27–28 at the Russian Railway Museum in Saint Petersburg.

The Magnezit museum reached the final in the “Best Multimedia Museum Project” nomination and was short-listed, as a potential winner in two more nominations: “Best Corporate Museum”, where the Chelyabinsk Oblast is also represented by the museum of Magnitogorsk Hardware and Sizing Plant “MMK-METIZ”, and “Museum Research” with the “Earth Interior Prospectors” exhibition project. 

“We take part in different contests annually and confirmed the status of the best corporate museum repeatedly”, says Galina Golovko, the Head of the Magnezit museum. “This year we submitted three applications to the “Corporate Museum” contest. In addition to those short-listed, our new interactive projects, like virtual excursions on production sites, developed by engineering, project management and work performance specialists of the Magnezit Group, are submitted to the expert council. They will be demonstrated online during the defense.” 

By the way, as the jury of the contest, people from the same district have already wished good luck to the finalists. Stanislav Naumov from Magnitogorsk Pedagogical College wrote the following on his page in VKontakte, a social network: “I am cautious when talking about industrial museums. A year ago, I did not immediately agree to join the jury. However, Natalya Nechaeva from Perm convinced me that only by making museums public it is possible to preserve valuable funds and take the first step towards modernization, digitization. I agreed and didn’t regret it. Two museums of the Chelyabinsk Oblast, from Satka (Magnezit) and from Magnitka (MMK-METIZ), reached the final of the all-Russian contest, which is held in Saint Petersburg in April. I would like to congratulate all employees of these museums, all veterans of labor of these two enterprises. I am sure that this news is a worthy occasion for a college administration to pay attention to the educational opportunities of our other industrial museums. Good luck to Magnitka and Satka.”

The full list of the contest’s finalists is available at https://corporate-museum.ru/2021/03/6644/

All three projects presented by the Magnezit Museum at the III All-Russian Contest “Corporate Museum” were among the winning items and awarded in the nominations “The Best Corporate Museum”, “Museum Research” and “The Best Multimedia Museum Project”. 

This year, the contest brought together more than 60 corporate museums from 37 Russian cities. Some of the projects in 5 nominations were presented online while other finalists presented their projects in person at the contest forum in St. Petersburg from April 27 to 28. The winners were announced yesterday on April 29, and a ceremony for awarding the best corporate museums in the country was held at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University on the same day.

The Magnezit Museum participated in three contest nominations and won a prize in each of them. It took second place in the nomination “The Best Corporate Museum” (experts choose the leading museum in a significant number of nominations) and “The Best Multimedia Museum Project” (where the employees of the Magnezit Museum presented a virtual production tour). 

The Museum Head Galina Golovko presented the exhibition project “Scouts of the Earth’s Interior” in the nomination “Museum Research”. The project is dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the Satka youth geological movement. This work received high scores from the jury and the Magnezit Museum took third place.

It should be noted that the corporate museum of the Magnezit Group competes with giants opponents in the annual competition, which include museums with a long history and huge exhibition opportunities, for example, VDNH, Museum of Russian Railways, Museum of History and Equipment of Kirov Plant, Tupolev Museum and Tatneft Oil Museum (the latter was awarded the Grand Prix) in this year. 

The organizers noted that this year’s competition brought together the largest number of participants and projects and that is why “the experts faced a hard choice problem.” 

“If we compare with the previous contest, we can speak with confidence about the quality growth of projects and presentations. During the pandemic, the doors of museums were closed for almost a year, all the contestants working in isolation are worthy of the title of the best,” believes the initiator and director of the All-Russian Contest Natalia Nechayeva. “It is necessary not only to maintain the industrial history of wins but there is an urgent need to run and fill the public space with stories about beloved professions, discoveries and witnesses of the creation of worlds, with everything that contains the energy of millions of people — while exploding the digital age by everlasting values.”

FOR REFERENCE

The First All-Russian Contest “Corporate Museum” was held in 2018. The purpose of the contest is the formation and development of the public interest in the industrial, scientific and educational potential of our country, the development of intercultural relations in the industry and society.

The initiator and franchisor of the contest is the non-profit partnership “Perm Mission of the Russian Association of Public Relations”.

The contest is supported by: RASO (the Russian Association of Public Relations) and ICOM of Russia (the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums).

Official partners: Museum of Russian Railways, Structural Unit of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, Branch of Russian Railways, Higher School of Advertising and Public Relations of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

On January 27, representatives of Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation visited Satka. The visit took place as part of a working visit to the Chelyabinsk Region.

The introduction to Satka began with a tour of the city and the Magnezit Museum, which in 2016 opened its doors after reconstruction. It should be reminded that the renewal of the museum was made possible by funds from Magnezit Group and a grant won in the XII contest Changing Museum in the Changing World of Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation.

“We came to Chelyabinsk region with an honorable mission - to present a certificate for 10 million rubles to replenish the endowment of the children’s charity fund Andryusha. Since every trip for us is an opportunity to get acquainted with the projects we have ever supported, we could not but come to Satka, where there are several of them. The most famous one, with which cooperation of our foundation and your city began - the Magnezit Museum. I was very impressed with what I saw,” says Oksana Oracheva, general director of Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation. “The Magnezit Museum is modern, comfortable for both visitors and those who work here. And most importantly, the employees don’t just keep what’s been done, but continually develop it. No wonder we always cite the Magnezit Museum as an example of transformation of a typical corporate museum into something unusual and interesting not only for the company, but also for everybody around it.”

Other projects of Vladimir Potanin Foundation related to Satka are the NEMOSKVA curatorial school, organized jointly with the Magnezit Group and the Sobranie Fund in fall 2019, and the Industriality and Cultural Laboratory, held the same year as part of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art. Elena Kamendrovskaya, a researcher of Satka Museum of Local Lore, reached the finals with her project “Porogi. Life.” This time she went with guests to Porogi, where she gave them an introductory tour of the historical and cultural monument of regional importance. Svetlana Kurnosova, director of Impulse Foundation, told the guests about the Distance Work without Stress project and the science-project.ru website (for writing and designing scientific papers and research projects) created as part of it. The project is also supported by Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation.

Guests also visited the viewing platform of the Karagay quarry, the Art-Satka public creative space, Magnezit Cultural Center and looked at art objects created during Satka Street Art Fest international street art festivals.

“We are glad that we took the opportunity to see everything with our own eyes. Admittedly, we had more of an experience than we expected. Contemporary art is so organically integrated into the city that it has become not something distant from us, something we see only in an art museum, but something very close, a space we live in. This is a story about the ordinary in the extraordinary and vice versa,” continues Oksana Ivanovna. “The example of cooperation with Satka, the projects implemented here and, of course, the Magnezit Museum prompted us to create a new “Industrial Museum” competition. We announced it last year, and now we are finishing accepting applications. The industrial heritage that museums preserve should be rethought and protected. We’re talking about buildings as well as intangible heritage - the history of workers and dynasties.”

FOR REFERENCE:

Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation is one of the first and largest private foundations in Russia. It was established in 1999 by entrepreneur Vladimir Potanin to implement large-scale humanitarian programs, today there are seven of them. Areas of activity: culture, higher education, social sports and charity.

The number of grantees and scholarship recipients of the Foundation exceeds 40 thousand people. By supporting leaders and contributing to human capital, the foundation is creating a generation of people for whom philanthropy is a natural need.

Magnezit Museum is one of the finalists of the 4th All-Russian Contest “Corporate Museum” and will compete with the best national museum practices in the categories “Development of Territories” and “Public Recognition”.

This year the contest accepted 126 projects in different categories. There are 62 corporate museums made it to the final. The experts have chosen 5 finalists in the Development of Territories category: Magnezit Museum, Museum of History and Labor Glory (Gazprom Dobycha Orenburg), Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk Museum, V. P. Bozhedomov Power Industry Museum (Far East Generating Company, Khabarovsk) and Kazakov Filigree Museum (Kazakov Art Works, Nizhny Novgorod Region).

This year the terms of selecting the winner in the Public Recognition category have changed. First there will be the online voting that will last from 8 am on April 20th to 11 pm on April 27th (MSK). It will determine the 10 museums with the most votes. The winner will be selected based on public performances of the nominees at the contest forum. And the museum that gets the most votes at the forum will win the Grand Prize in the Public Recognition category. You can support Magnezit Museum by clicking here.

The short list and brief information about each nominee is presented at corporate-museum.ru. Information about Magnezit Museum can be found here. Also the museum workers told about the novelties, specifically about virtual tours to Satka production site of Magnezit Group. VR tour gives a unique opportunity to visit Magnezitovaya mine, state-of-the-art facilities producing a line of premium quality refractory products of Russian Magnezit, to have a closer look at the equipment and feel the atmosphere of the production process.

All winners of the 4th All-Russian Contest “Corporate Museum” will be announced at final gala ceremony in Moscow on May 26th. It is worth mentioning that only three corporate museums have never missed the contest. They are the Kirov Plant Museum of History and Engineering, the Ural Power Industry Museum (IDGC of Urals) and Magnezit Museum, while 28 participants represent their projects for the first time.

It should be reminded that this year the contest expert council consists of the heads of corporate museums - the last years’ winners, including Galina Golovko, the head of Magnezit Museum.

SPEAKING OF WHICH:

Magnezit Museum is a participant and winner of all three all-Russian contests “Corporate Museum” that have been held for the recent time: winner in the categories “Exhibition of the Year” (2018) and “Museum for the Future” (2019), 2nd degree diploma winner in the Best Corporate Museum category (2021). Moreover, in 2021, the corporate museum of Magnezit Group took 1st place in the All-Russian tourist contest “Route of the Year” in the category “The Best Route to an Operating Production Facility”.

The Magnezit Museum has won the second place in the rating of the Russian national competition “Corporate Museum”.

This is the first rating made by the organizers of the competition after four seasons, from 2018 to 2021. The Directorate and the experts of the competition put 22 out of 112 museums on the top list, based on criteria such as participation frequency and winning. The rating will also affect the outcome of the fifth competition: the higher the rating the more chances of winning in the nomination “Best Corporate Museum”.

The Magnezit Museum made the TOP 10 of corporate museums and won the second place, surpassing the Ural Energy Museum (Rosseti, Yekaterinburg) and second only to the Russian Railway Museum (RZD Branch, Saint Petersburg).

“A contestant for the fifth year in row, the Magnezit Museum is a regular participant and a regular leader at the competition. The Ural Energy Museum is the only other contestant that never missed a year in this competition”, said Natalia Nechaeva, Director of the competition. “The reason the team of the Magnezit Museum have been so successful is that they always present brilliant projects and are a formidable competitor to any major company or large city. One of the main indicators of success is constant development. You are always on the go, introducing new activity areas and putting into life stunning creative ideas and thoughts that are “ahead of the entire planet”. I would not like to single out any particular project that the museum has presented at the competition, but when we were your guests, we took the Russian Magnezit tour route. It was an impressive tour, especially since we had the chance to see an active quarry! I was amazed!”

Natalia Nechaeva also mentioned that the competition rating will be released every year, on the Corporate Museums Day – January 24.

“The leaders of the first rating is one team of like-minded people. Congratulations to everyone who has been part of it! I wish you all successful projects and new achievements. Greetings on our professional birthday!” Natalia Nechaeva added.

INFORMATION:

The tradition of 24 January being the birthday of corporate museums has established itself at the national competition. It is believed that Peter the Great's order of 13 (24) January 1709 to create a “model chamber” in Saint Petersburg marked the start of industrial assemblies. The “model chamber” served as a training base for future seamen and shipbuilders, and performed the most important functions of a museum: collection, storage and study of shipbuilding monuments.

The Magnezit Museum has never missed an opportunity to demonstrate successful projects and now took part in the competition for the fifth time, having previously become a laureate in the nominations “Display of the Year” (2018), “Museum for the Future” (2019) and “Land development” (2022), and the winner of the 2nd degree award in the nomination “Best Corporate Museum” (2021).

Young developers of the mobile application “Magnezit. Event Chronology” and their tutors, teachers of IT-Cube Children’s Digital Education Center, were awarded on January 31 in the Magnezit Museum.

Work over a mobile service resembling a calendar in smart phones, but containing the main events and important dates in the history of Magnezit Group, was launched last summer. In the framework of the joint career guidance project implemented by the corporate museum, IT-Cube, Secondary School No. 11, and the Publishing House of Magnezitovets, fifth-eighth year students from secondary schools, who attended a school camp, were teamed up in a special project group. Under the guidance of their tutors, the children developed a screen-saver for the application in the corporate style of the Magnezit Museum, designed a window with the short information about events, and learned working with databases.

– It was based on the Votkinsk memorable date calendar, which had been developed for a competition. When one chooses a date, a field appears, which contains the information about the events organized in Votkinsk that day. Our manager Artem V. Mikhailov appreciated the project and offered showing it to the staff of the Magnezit Museum, who needed a similar program for their activities. The idea was approved, but it was changed in the implementation process. Two applications were developed as a result. The first one is for visitors, who can find the events held in the Magnezit Museum and in the city in a given period. The second one is for the staff to make corrections, says Maksim Gainanov, a teacher of IT-Cube. – At present, the project is 99%-ready. We are making the final corrections. The new service application will soon become the right hand for the staff of the Magnezit Museum.

“The “Magnezit” Museum is one of the factors that influence the development of Satkinsky District. A magnet for tourist groups, it is included in most of the routes through the district. People start to associate the museum with the city and think of it as one of its symbols.” This is a quote from the article about the results of the Corporate Museum National Award, which was published on the official website of the contest on November 17. 

Analyzing the history of creation and the first five years of the Award’s development, the authors consider museums of enterprises and corporations as a phenomenon and cite the most striking examples, among which is the “Magnezit” Museum, a regular participant and repeated winner of the contest (https://magnezitnews.ru/blog-441).

Natalia Grishina, the author of the article and an independent expert of the contest, notes that the event is unique—because no similar platforms have ever existed anywhere in the world before—and that it is in demand both by the professional community and the society. She says that the change of status is the main evidence of its success: in 2022 the All-Russian contest transformed into the Corporate Museum National Award. The expert also reminds that only 16 corporate museums took part in the first contest, while this year the number of museums that presented their projects hit 71.

The article further mentions that this year, based on the results of the past seasons, a rating of museums participating in the contest was compiled. The “Magnezit” Museum (https://magnezitnews.ru/blog-39) was among its leaders.

- The first two places in the rating were taken by institutions that are quite different in scale: the Russian Railway Museum in St. Petersburg and the “Magnezit” Museum from the town of Satka in Chelyabinsk Region. This is a prove that any museum can implement interesting projects, - says the expert. In the Raising the Profession Prestige section she introduces readers to the projects that have been presented for the contest and gained recognition in different years. A brief story about successful practices begins with the example of the corporate museum of Magnezit Group. Natalia Grishina writes:

“The “Magnezit” Museum is one of the most active participants of the contest, which has not missed a single season. In 2019, its project “Museum for the Future” became the winner. The museum sees the future in people, so the focus of attention is on children and youth. It seeks to motivate people of the future to a conscious attitude to their lives through involvement in the game, without didactics, and using a colloquial language. It proves that knowledge is a value, education helps to achieve more, and work of professionals changes the life of ordinary people and the whole planet for the better. The museum becomes a driver of social climate change in Satka, a town in Chelyabinsk Region, which counts just over 42 thousand residents. A significant outcome of the museum’s work is the growing share of young people choosing a career as a highly skilled worker or engineer. Another winning project of the museum gives an opportunity to try on the role of a worker at the modern plant. The “Russky Magnezit” project is a VR-journey through all stages of production of magnesia refractories. Visitors put on VR-helmets, take joysticks, and hop from the museum to a workshop equipped with relevant equipment, filled with realistic sounds, and imitating real-life processes.

Excursions are not limited to the museum space; there is also a route around the company’s production site. Modern production facilities surprise visitors with their scale, level of automation and robotization. Nowadays, the “Magnezit” Museum is one of the factors that influence the development of Satkinsky District. A magnet for tourist groups, it is included in most of the routes through the district. People start to associate the museum with the city and think of it as one of its symbols. Therefore, it is absolutely logical that it won the award for “the Development of Territories category.”

Read more: https://corporate-museum.ru/2023/11/28407/

The Magnezit Museum took the 2nd place again in the ranking of the Corporate Museum National Award, which was made after five contests of 2018-2023.

The organizers of the national award announced the ranking: the top 25 corporate museums and the top 150 participants of all five seasons of the contest. The total score reflected the scores awarded for the frequency of participation in the competition and for prize-winning places.

The Magnezit Museum made the top three corporate museums in Russia, winning the second place. The corporate museum of Magnezit Group missed no opportunity to demonstrate its experience and its successful projects. After five contests, the museum has a number of awards, such as Exhibition of the Year (2018), Museum of the Future (2019), Development of Territories (2022), 2nd degree diplomas in the nominations Best Corporate Museum (2021) and Best Industrial Route (2023). Last year, the museum won a special prize – the golden trophy for Best Corporate Museum.

The Russian Railway Museum (Saint Petersburg) became the leader of the ranking for the second year in row. Magnezit shared the second place with Goznak's Russian Money History Museum, with the Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta Museum in the third place.

The Directorate of the award also mentioned that a total of 525 projects were submitted by 255 participants from seven federal districts of the Russian Federation in all five contests. The map of the contest features 78 cities. The largest number of participants were from Moscow (20 museums), followed by Saint Petersburg (19) and Perm (12).

In addition, the ranking became annual and is issued on the Corporate Museum Day – January 24.

The Magnezit Museum has been hailed as the best museum in Russia at the 6th National Award for Corporate Museums, winning the Grand Prix in the contest.

The final stage of the Awards took place in October 1-3 in Nizhny Novgorod at the Cultural Center of the Gorky Automobile Plant, with 250 delegates from across Russia and the near abroad participating.

The competitive part of the Awards event got together 90 corporate museums of Russia’s leading companies as well as museums of industrial enterprises of Belarus and Azerbaijan. The business program involved defense of projects presented in the contest in various nominations, such as: New Display; Exhibition of the Year; Museum for Everyone; Corporate Social Responsibility; Development Of Territories; the Best Education Projects of a Corporate Museum; Discovery of the Year; the Best Industrial Route of a Museum; and the Best Museum Event. 

The Magnezit Museum presented two projects at the contest: one – the display “The Art of the Intellect. People × Ideas × Achievements”, which can be seen in Chelyabinsk today, and one on an online platform; the project “Genius of Location”, which is presented on a field platform of the museum in the Avangard complex and involved in career guidance and regular tour programs. Anastasia Chizhikova, a specialist of the Magnezit Museum, gave presentations on those projects.

“The National Award “Corporate Museum”, in addition to being a transmitter of the best expertise in our industry, has been operating as a platform for exchanging opinions and discussing relevant topics for several years. The center of attention this year was the topic “Corporate Museum: From a Public Initiative to Status Formalization”, Anastasia Chizhikova says. “Experts mentioned the history of creating corporate museums in Russia, which is connected with preservation and promotion of traditional values such as family, constructive work, historical memory, and intergenerational continuity. The decree “The Basics of Government Policy of the Russian Federation Regarding Historical Education”, signed by the President of Russia in May earlier this year talks about the need for government support and the formalization of “the status of industry museums as an important component of the scientific and practical base of historical education”. This is important because, as was pointed out, corporate museums today are becoming successfully developing cultural and social centers on a national scale as well as at the level of their respective companies and areas of their presence".

Other memorable events of the Awards were the exhibition “Social City: Revival of Traditions” and the exhibition of souvenir products of corporate museums, where our museum presented a variety of souvenirs, printed products and games featuring Magnik and produced in its brand style. In addition, many visitors took an interest in samples of magnesite and periclase glowing in the floodlight. Some of those became gifts to other museums.

By the way, the video of the transmission of the Award event is available in the social media group.

FOR INFORMATION:

The Magnezit Museum took part in all six corporate museum competitions. In five previous contests, the museum won a number of awards, such as Exhibition of the Year (2018), Museum of the Future (2019), Development of Territories (2022), 2nd degree diplomas in the nominations Best Corporate Museum (2021) and Best Industrial Route (2023), and a special prize – the Best Corporate Museum golden trophy (2023). 

The Corporate Museum project consolidated industrial collections in order to update the industrial heritage and promote historical and cultural values of Russian companies. There is no other competition platform for corporate museums similar to the National Award “Corporate Museum” either Russia or elsewhere in the world.

The revival of the tradition of creating and boosting activities of corporate museums is an important component of the program for developing intercultural relations of industrial companies, the state and society. Six seasons of the contest have seen 675 projects presented by 345 participants. The First All-Russian Contest “Corporate Museum” was held in the city of Perm, in 2018.

The National Award “Corporate Museum” is supported by the ICOM of Russia (the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums), the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and, this year, by the Gorky Automobile Plant.

The history and the modern stage in the development of the Magnezit Museum is presented in the first issue of the miscellany The Corporate Museum, published as part of the national awards of the same name.

You may know, that the Magnezit Museum won the Grand Prix at the 4th National Award The Corporate Museum earlier this year. In the miscellany, which combines the expertise of the best corporate museum, the Magnezit Museum is presented in the article by Galina Golovko, the director of the institution.

The organizers of the National Award have collected a lot of priceless material that they wanted to preserve and share with others. This led to the decision to issue an annual miscellany,” the publishers say. “We live at the time of revival of museum centers of historical memory in companies and educational institutions. The first issue of the miscellany collected information about the development of this phenomenon in society during the Soviet period and about the history of each unique museum individually

27 authors from 25 corporate museums have contributed to the miscellany. Their history: how they were first created, the example set by their founders, the enthusiasm of their teams who preserve the historical memory, build collections and transform traditional museum spaces into modern educational and cultural centers — all of this is important experience, which will help disseminate this new publication. 

For more details about the miscellany, please go to the website of the Award, and the miscellany itself is available at the Magnezit Museum.