SPIEF Session Addresses Creative Industry Projects in Arctic

Participants in a Creative Business Forum session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum discussed best practices in implementing and scaling creative industry projects in the Arctic and northern territories. The session ‘Made in the Arctic: Grants as a Driver of the Creative Economy in the North’ is part of the ‘Creative Industries of the North’ programme and the schedule of events of Russia’s chairmanship in the Arctic Council in 2021–2023, which are being organized by the Roscongress Foundation.

Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives CEO Roman Karmanov said that his organization has supported around 3,000 creative teams from 85 regions of Russia over the past year. An additional 8,000 jobs have appeared in Russia thanks to the creation of the Fund. The organization has received over 75,000 applications for a total of RUB 127.832 billion, of which the applicants themselves are ready to invest RUB 42 billion.

“We have a serious shortage of creative professions in various fields. We don’t have enough writers, composers, musicians, and many others who generate content. Money is being invested, the situation is already changing, and we are seeing this,” Karmanov said.

Support for projects in the Arkhangelsk Region has resulted in the scaling of the Arctic Open International Festival, which unites the entire range of Arctic cinema, Minister of Culture of the Arkhangelsk Region Oksana Svetlova said. In addition, the animation industry is developing in the region: the Arkhangelsk Region authorities are planning to launch educational projects jointly with Russian animation studio Soyuzmultfilm.

“We are using grant support from the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives to promote, preserve, and develop existing communities. Of course, this provides huge support for the region,” Svetlova said.

The creative industry projects contribute to the development of tourism in the regions, said Natalya Agakhanova, Director of the Dmitry Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Foundation for Support and Development of Art. Agakhanova said that modern creative projects help to develop the regional economy at the expense of the service sectors.

In addition to Karmanov, Svetlova, and Agakhanova, the session ‘Made in the Arctic: Grants as a Driver of the Creative Economy in the North’ was attended by Philip Abryutin, Artistic Director and Programme Director of the Golden Raven International Arctic Film Festival; Vladimir Sobolev, Head of Student Groups at the Headquarters of the Youth Labour Teams of the Arkhangelsk Region of the Russian Student Teams All-Russian Youth Public Organization; and Svetlana Soldatova, Director and Producer of the Northern Character Producer Centre.

Russia will continue to chair the Arctic Council in 2021–2023 and one of the cross-cutting themes of its chairmanship is to provide responsible governance for the sustainable development of the Arctic. Priorities include improving the quality of human capital with special attention paid to work to improve the well-being and living standards of the Arctic population, including indigenous peoples, the creation of a modern urban environment, the provision of quality education, improvements to the healthcare system, and the preservation of the cultural and linguistic traditions of the Arctic inhabitants.

Reference information:

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