News archive

23.03.2007
    Art exchanges between Oxford and Perm have been successfully developing over 10 years. Rostislav Shabalin, Director of Perm Exhibition Hall, and Valeriy Kuimov, Deputy Director of the Hall, visited Oxford at the beginning of March.
    The trip turned out to be quite fruitful. First, during their stay in Oxford there was the opening of the exhibition of watercolors and graphic works made by students of Perm Art College. It is worth noting that participants of Perm-Oxford Art Exchange-2002 (Cheney School) helped arrange the exhibition. Images of Perm attracted attention of both amateur and professional artists and art-lovers.
    During the week Perm art managers got acquainted with Oxford art community. In June in Perm Exhibition Hall there will be held an Exhibition dedicated to the Perm City Day with participation of artists, photographers, sculptors from Perm’s twin cities. 5 Oxford artists and a photographer expressed their willingness to exhibit their works in Perm.
    While visiting Oxford museums, galleries and exhibition halls Perm guests established contacts with directors and art managers of some organizations.

12.02.2007
   On Saturday, February 10th, in Perm Gorky Park there was the closing ceremony of the XIII International Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival “Snow, Ice and Fire!”
   Prize-winners in the SNOW nomination are:
   1 place - «Fares, Any More Fares!», Perm youth team, Russia
   2 place – «Warm Yourself Up!», Perm, Russia (team-captain – Andrey Kataev)
   3 place – «Curiosity is not a Sin», the City of Izhevsk, Russia (team-captain – Dmitriy Postnikov)

   In ICE nomination the results are:
   1 place - «Nothing Venture, Nothing Gain», the city of Cheboksary, Russia (team-captain – Andrey Molokov)
   2 place – «A Bear in a Boat», Swiss team (captain – Urs Mökli)
   «Pinguins on Water Skis», Swis team (captain – Urs Jordi)
   3 place – «Ye-à-h! The Climate has Changed!», Perm (captain – Elena Simanova)

   Public prize went to a German team (captain - Sergej Ponetaev) for their snow bas-relief “And Where Is Masha?”
Special prize from the Perm Gorky Park was awarded to a team from India (captain –Ravinder Kumar) for their ice sculpture “Extreme Happiness”.

   Perm citizens and guests of the city are welcome to the Gorky Park to enjoy the art of snow and ice carving.

07.02.2007
    The XIII Festival of Snow and Ice Sculpture “Snow, Ice and Fire!” started on February 6th in Perm Gorky Park.
    Teams from USA, Germany, France, Switzerland (2 teams), Austria and India came to Perm to carve snow and ice. Of course, Russia is represented by many cities and towns, too – Far East, Siberia, St. Petersburg, Moscow and many other places. Perm adult teams also take part in the event along with teams of Perm orphanages and art schools.
    The peculiarity of this year’s festival is that it is thematic; it being called the first festival of humor. Sculptors have in store many surprises for Perm citizens but now they do not wish to disclose their secrets: everything will be clear on the closing day, February 10th. Meanwhile participants are working most of the time in the park and enjoying Perm in the evening.

18.01.2007
   Michael Brohm, a Louisvillian photographer, will exhibit photographs of Perm people at Gallerie X, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The exhibition is called “Yesterday’s Enemies” and is held in the frame of Perm-Louisville Sister-Cities’ relationship.
   The work on this project started when a delegation from Louisville traveled to Perm in 2004. Mr. Brohm is a photographer working on a Master degree in photography at the University of Louisville. His particular interest is the history of place and people. Before the trip Michael Brohm had done a lot of research and had drawn parallels between Perm and Louisville. While in Perm (2004 and 2006) Michael Brohm photographed the faces of the people. Mr. Brohm was interested in photographing people from all walks of life: he took pictures of Perm ballet dancers, war veterans, children, religious leaders, artists and people on street and appreciated warmth, openness and hospitality of Perm citizens.
   The photographs were shown to many people, including students, University professors and local government officials. All talk about the closeness and friendship between the two communities and the two countries.
   This exhibit does not mark the end of the project, just a step on the way. Now Michael Brohm is working on getting back to Perm to take more photographs of Perm citizens.

17.11.2006
    At the end of November 2006 a delegation from the City of Qingdao is visiting Perm.
    The visit will be the first step in realization of an Agreement on Friendship Link between the two cities signed by Mayor Igor Shubin during his visit to the People’s Republic of China.
    2006 is the Year of Russia in China. On this occasion the Mayor Igor Shubin and the Chief Executive Arkadiy Kats participated in the Russian National Exhibition in Beijing. Perm delegation also visited the City of Qingdao - Perm established an official friendship link with the city in 2003.
    The Mayor Xia Geng and the Mayor Igor Shubin discussed possible ways of cooperation – along with traditional relations in culture, education and sport it was agreed to focus on cooperation in economic development.
    In particular, Perm Fair Exhibition Center is ready to welcome Qingdao enterprises at annual exhibitions and to organize a special event for Qingdao participants. Issues of city planning and development sound mutually interesting and promising as well as cooperation in tourist industry - Qingdao is one of the most popular resorts in China. It is worth mentioning that Qingdao is the only Chinese city (apart from Beijing, of course) to host the Olympic Games in 2008 (sailing regatta).
    Concluding the visit of Perm delegation to Qingdao an Agreement on Friendship Link was signed by the Mayors of both cities. Within this Agreement the first Qingdao delegation is going to visit Perm at the end of November. As far as 2007 is announced to be the Year of China in Russia, the main topic for discussion will be possible projects between Qingdao and Perm in 2007.

10.10.2006
    Today Varvara Kalpidi’s movie titled “Louisville-Perm. Love Story” will be presented in Louisville, KY, at the Sister Cities office.
    The movie is about the history of Perm-Louisville Sister-Cities’ relationship. The viewers have a chance to watch interviews with those who initiated establishing the link more than 10 years ago and with those who are engaged in current joint projects. Jerry Abramson, the Mayor of Louisville, Sharon Receveur, President of Sister-Cities of Louisville, and active participants of SCL programs shared their memories about events and actions held together and spoke about their friends in Perm – it is personal contacts that are the basis of successful cooperation of the cities in many aspects.
    In Perm the movie was presented as a part of the Festival of universities on June 29th, 2006 prior to the concert performed by a jazz band from the University of Louisville. The movie has been viewed with great interest by the people here, in Perm.
    In Louisville the movie will be presented during the international St. James Court Art Show. Participation of Perm artists and sculptors in this prestigious art event has become a tradition: it is for the third time Perm artists and craftsmen display their works to Louisvillians.
    Presentation of the movie will enable to widen the frames of the festival and lead to fruitful communication in the future. Authors of the movie and all the participants of sister-cites’ movement hope that both the movie and cooperation between the two cities will be continued…

31.08.2006
  Thanks to the twinning link between Perm and Oxford Perm residents had a chance to get acquainted with world famous Irish Dances.

  The Doyle Academy from Oxford came to Perm only for the second time but people strongly believed that the group came to Perm almost every year – it’s because the previous visit of 2001 engraved in memories of our citizens. Children but they dance like no adult would ever have enough courage to imitate their movements.
  When watching Irish dances it seems that people cannot dance like that. One need to think differently to create all these complicated patterns. Each move has a long tradition behind which the head of the academy Anne-Marie Gallacher (Doyle is her maiden name) interpreted and transformed because all dances are choreographed by her. Essential and important is the story behind each of the dances.
  One of the dancers is a five-year old Molly Bourke – a curly blonde-haired dolly who appears on the stage when the dance is in full swing and not for a long time: if Molly is on the stage she steals the show. It is interesting that in 2001 when the Doyles came to Perm for the first time Molly was just several days old. Her two elder brothers are also dancers of the Academy and the family travels all together when the Academy goes on tour and this time they all came to Perm.
  The audience who watched the Irish dance for the first time had an absolutely special and mixed impression: on the one hand, a feeling of novelty and unusualness, and on the other hand, something very familiar.

12.05.2006
   From 6th of May through yesterday Perm celebrated the 61st Anniversary of the end of the WWII.
   Perm folk and dance groups prepared concerts and performances dedicated to the Victory Day. They performed near all Perm war memorials where war veterans traditionally met each other. A number of films about the war were shown in the MIR cinema both for war veterans and for the young generation.
   The Mayor of Perm and Perm officials laid wreaths at the Mourning Mother Memorial on the 8th of May. Many citizens came to the Memorial to place flowers to commemorate those who perished during the WWII.
   The main festive activities took place on the 9th of May. War veterans and the military marched along the main street of Perm. After the parade the Perm Choir performed for the veterans right in the street.
Near the Monument to the Ural Tank Corps the Eternal Flame was set up. The Victory Day Salute became a colorful culmination of the Victory Day.

11.04.2006
   An official delegation of Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy) visited Perm.
   At the meeting with the delegates Ilya Shulkin, the Deputy Mayor of Perm, outlined some areas for future cooperation – communal services, public safety, IT, municipal administration. One of the issues discussed was setting up a twinning link between the City of Perm and the City of Udine. Both cities have universities and possess rich cultural heritage. Student and cultural exchanges can build up a basis for developing friendship between the two cities and their people.

05.04.2006
   Oxford specialists conducted a seminar on palliative care in Perm.
   In the frame of the Agreement between Perm Charity “Hospice” and the Oxford International Center for Palliative Care specialists from Oxford Hospice, Rosalyn Roulston and Kathy Warburton, gave a three-day seminar on an unfamiliar theme in Russia, "Help for children and adults in grief.” It was their seventh visit to Perm. Their contribution in the development of Perm hospice movement cannot be overestimated. Thirty-seven volunteers and specialists from Perm, Perm Region and Kazakhstan received Certificates of Achievement. Assistance offered by attendees of the seminar to people dealing with grief will become more professional.

next page >>>