News archive

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.

27.03.2006
   Mr. Igor Shubin won the Mayoral Elections.
   278 413 Perm voters took part in the second round of Mayoral Elections which was held on Sunday, 26th March, 2006.
   Igor Shubin has taken about 37,13% of the vote. His rival Pavel Anokhin, the member of the State Duma, came in second place with 32,15%. 29,43 % of people voted against all candidates.
   In accordance with the current legislature the City Election Committee endorsed the elections and declared Igor Shubin the Mayor of Perm.

06.03.2006
   The City of Perm has been designated a City of Culture for the year 2006 by the Volga Federal District.
   In May 2000, President Putin made significant changes to the federal system in the Russian Federation. Russia was divided into 7 federal districts to encompass all 89 constituent entities, each federal district – with an appointed plenipotentiary presidential representative to be accountable to the President for the interests of the central government in each of the districts. Perm Krai (Region) is one of the 14 constituent entities of the Russian Federation that make up the Volga Federal District.
   On a regular annual basis, cities and towns of the Volga District compete to win the status of ‘The Capital of Culture of the District’ for one year to reveal its cultural resources. For the year 2006 Perm was selected to be a City of Culture.
   Due to this status Perm citizens and guests of our city will have an opportunity to get acquainted with various trends in arts and culture and to get involved in the activities to be held within the programme. All the activities are aimed to highlight the cultural significance of the city and strengthen its status throughout the District and the whole country.
   The Programme includes a number of events to be held in 2006 such as the Festival of Universities, the Contest of Ballet Dancers, the International Jazz Festival, Ethnic Dance Festival, Summer Art School, the International Fashion Festival and many others.

28.02.2006
   The exhibition “Faraway Breezes – Ceramics from the Perm Period” was opened in Louisville, USA.
   This exhibit features ceramic work by Perm artists – Inna Rogova and Natalya Korchemkina who were first visiting Community Artists from Russia at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. The clay works by these two gifted artists were created on-site at Bernheim’s Lakeside Studio during their three month residency in the autumn 2005.
   Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest developed this artist exchange program in collaboration with Sister Cities of Louisville Inc. after successful participation of Perm artists at St. James Court Art Show in 2003.
   In 2005 Bernheim offered the Perm artists a studio, a kiln, clay and paints. During their stay at Bernheim Perm artists created many ceramic pieces inspired by the scenery at Bernheim, took part in various festivals, master-classes and art-shows in Louisville. They also created an environmental sculpture of a large pair of hands protecting a fragile flower. The sculpture was placed at the entrance to Bernheim Forest.
   And now the American public can enjoy the Perm artists’ clay pieces in the Education Building Gallery through April 29, 2006.

28.02.2006
   Last week Michael Brohm, a photographer from Louisville, USA, traveled to Perm to continue work on his project photographing Perm citizens.
   For the first time Michael Brohm visited Perm as a member of a Louisville delegation in 2004. The portraits he made of the citizens of Perm have been viewed with great interest by the people in Kentucky.
   This time he photographed as much as he could, both portraits and pictures on the streets. Being interested in history, Michael Brohm has focused on photographing some people who refer to that history both in Perm and in Louisville – people who lived through the Cold War, veterans of wars that our countries were involved in; he also looked for people unique to Perm, to Russia.
   Having got in Perm as much on film as possible, Michael Brohm will continue his work on the photo exhibition in Louisville.

20.02.2006
   On Saturday, February 18th the closing ceremony of the XII International Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival “Snow, Ice and Fire!” took place in Perm City Gorky Park.
   That day hundreds of people came to the Park to have a look at ice and snow sculptures created by Russian and foreign participants of the Festival and to enjoy the fireworks. Many more people came to the Park every day from February 15th through February 18th to watch the process of creating fragile pieces of art by 35 teams from Russia and abroad. This year 12 foreign teams representing the USA, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic and Australia experienced the Festival, some of them – not for the first time.
   The Festival welcomed a team of co-founders of the Perm Festival – Ken Colorado and Kyle Gribskov from the USA who came to Perm to introduce a new form of sculpting snow and ice. Their snow-and-ice sculpture began to move and sparkle in the end and became the finale of the closing ceremony.
   Here are official results of the Festival:
   SNOW nomination:
   1place – “Are You Lagging Behind? We Shall Help You Out” by a Moscow team
   2 place – “I Shall Unwrap It and It Will Fly Away” by a Perm team
   3 place – “A Form of Macrocosm” by an Izhevsk team
   ICE nomination:
   1 place – “An Ice Dance” by a joint Australian-Russian (Arhangelsk) team
   2 place – “My Grandma’s Secrets” by a Moscow team
   3 place – “A Present to the Russian Air Forces from Sculptors” by a team from Ufa
   Special prize of the jury went to the French team (Michel Boisgerault, Dominique and Hugette Malbois) for their ice sculpture called “Horses with Balalaika”. Captains of all teams gave their votes for one more team from Perm for the sculpture “Is It You Who Has Lost This?”.
   Now when the Festival is over the Park invites everyone to enjoy the sculptures before they melt.

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