Cultural Programme

The 173-metre Cape Green, the highest in Murmansk, rises high above Semenovskoye Lake. At its summit is a memorial in honour of the ‘Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War’. This massive monument to the soldiers who stood up to invaders during the Great Patriotic War opened on 19 October 1974, on the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the fascist troops in the Arctic. The memorial was designed by architect Igor Pokrovsky and sculptor Isaak Brodsky. The funds to build the memorial were raised based on an initiative among the workers of the Rezets floating workshop.
Construction began on 17 October 1969 and lasted five years.
A 35.5-metre-tall Soviet soldier looks down on the city from a seven-metre-tall pedestal.
It is one of the tallest monuments in Russia. The sculpture of the Arctic defender is hollow inside, but its weight exceeds 5,000 tonnes. Murmansk residents have affectionately nicknamed the concrete giant Alyosha.

This permanent exhibition at the art museum tells the story of how Russian fine art has evolved from the 17th century to the present day.
The exhibition consists of several sections. In particular, the museum collection contains 65 icons, most of which are from St. Nicholas Church in the village of Kovda. In July 2006, 28 icons were transferred to the museum’s main collection by order of the Committee for Culture and Art of the Murmansk Region. Another 37 items were added to the museum collection in 2019.
The museum collection also features paintings from the 17th–19th centuries, including works by Harlampy Kostandi, Ilya Zankovsky, Mikhail Clodt, and Johann Köhler.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

The exhibition will include roughly 100 unique items from the collections of Kola Peninsula museums. It will depict certain aspects of the development of the Northern Sea Route and tell the stories behind the artists who celebrate the Arctic and who visited it for the first time during scientific expeditions to study the Arctic territories, sea routes, and the treasures of the ocean.
Phenomenon of ‘expeditionary fine art’
The ability to draw was one of the most important components of the expedition, since the expedition artists were the ones who recorded geographical sites with topographic accuracy and properly depicted the peoples who inhabit hard-to-reach territories and their way of life.

Present your participant badge at the box office to receive a free ticket.

The fair will feature works by Arctic artisans, including unique souvenirs that tell the story of the Arctic expanses, original jewellery that preserves the light of the polar night, and housewares carved with love from local materials.
Visit the fair to not only buy some rare items, but to also immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a real northern fairy tale.

Admission is free.

There will be a twenty-five-metre tunnel on Ulitsa Vorovskovo with ice engravings dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the opening of the Northern Sea Route.
In addition to the exhibition, Forum guests can visit an ice bar at which Murmansk producers will present Arctic beverages.

Admission is free.

The traditional Taste of the Arctic gastronomic festival will be held on Ulitsa Vorovskovo in Murmansk on 25–30 March 2025. A collaborative team of restaurateurs and chefs from the regions of Russia’s Arctic zone will present a menu of Arctic cuisine, which broadly consists of products from the northern seas and producers in the northern regions.
In 2025, more than 15 catering enterprises from Russia’s Arctic regions will take part in the gastronomic festival, which will also feature a fair of souvenirs from the Murmansk Region and the Taste the North ice bar.
During the festival, the office of the Murmansk Region’s Tourist Information Centre will be open for northerners and guests of the International Arctic Forum, where the city’s residents and guests will be able to learn about popular tourist programmes and purchase a Polar Explorer Passport.
The festival will also continue the highly popular Arctic Post tradition of guests sending their loved ones exclusive commemorative postcards from the Arctic.
There will also be entertainment and music programmes, prize draws, and much more.

Admission is free.

The Murmansk Regional Museum of Local Lore is the largest museum in the region and immerses visitors in the history and nature of the Kola Peninsula. In March 2025, the museum reopened its historic building following major renovations to present brand-new exhibits that combine modern technology and authentic historical artifacts.
What should guests expect?
• 14 thematic halls with exhibits about the Murmansk Region dating from ancient times to the present day
• Authentic items reflecting the richness of Arctic nature and culture
• New exhibits prepared according to contemporary museum standards that showcase the uniqueness of the Murmansk Region through the prism of history, ecology, and technology
The museum offers visitors both an educational and an inspiring experience that helps provide a better understanding of the past, present, and future of the Arctic. It’s the perfect place to feel a connection with the history of the region, which plays a key role in the development of Russia’s Arctic zone. The visit to the museum will be a vivid and memorable event for the Forum guests and will emphasize the Murmansk Region’s importance as a centre of Arctic culture and science.
The museum staff will conduct special tours for Forum guests every day at specific times. During normal working hours, you can explore the museum on your own or as part of sightseeing groups.
Don’t miss your chance to see the renovated museum – a place where history comes to life!

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

Tours:
26 March 17:00
27 March 09:00
28 March 11:00

Arctic Dialogue is a regional project that enables young northerners to personally communicate with famous people.

The series of meetings has been held since 2022. Guests share their success stories with young people and answer various questions about their careers, self-fulfilment, education, volunteering, starting their own business, and implementing initiatives. The main goal of the project is to show children what kind of opportunities and prospects are available in the Murmansk Region.
During the IAF, Forum participants and speakers will have a chance to speak to Murmansk residents.

Admission is free for Forum participants.

h2o +, ‘Art about Water and More...’
Exhibition of works from the collection of the Siyanie Contemporary Art Centre and works from the collections of Vladimir Nekrasov and Andrey Malakhov that are being donated to the Murmansk Regional Art Museum.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

Admission is free.

The Lenin nuclear icebreaker is the first vessel in the world with an atomic propulsion unit. It is the only cultural heritage site of federal importance in the city of Murmansk. More than 500 enterprises and institutions of the USSR took part in building the icebreaker at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad in 1956–1959. It was commissioned on 3 December 1959.
Over the next 30 years, Lenin provided navigational support on the Northern Sea Route and served as an atomic university that accumulated experience from year-round Arctic navigation operations, improved technologies, and trained personnel for the Soviet nuclear fleet.
The icebreaker led thousands of ships through the Arctic ice and traversed some 654,400 nautical miles, more than three times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It was decommissioned in 1989. On 5 May 2009, the Lenin nuclear icebreaker moored at the sea terminal in the centre of Murmansk and quickly became a calling card of the Murmansk Region and one of the most visited tourist sites in the Kola North.
The modern Lenin Nuclear Icebreaker Arctic Exhibition Centre is a structural unit of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Nuclear Fleet (FSUE Atomflot) of the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation.
The meeting point for the group is at the gangway
exact location

Tours are free for participants. The registration format is TBD.
All excursions are in Russian, except for 03/28/2025 11:30, at this time there will be an excursion in English.

On the evening of 26 March, the ice will start to melt under the electric saws of ice axes, and the air will be filled with the magic of creativity. Some 50 master sculptors will start transforming cold blocks of ice into works of art to provide visitors with a real show and a breathtaking spectacle!
The sculptures – symbols of the Arctic regions and northern lands – will emerge right before the audience’s eyes.
The evening celebration will continue the traditions of the Snegoled Festival, which has been bringing together lovers of winter art for many years. The first Mad Saw took place in the Murmansk Region back in 2011, marking the beginning of a whole series of events that unite talented artists and spectators.

Admission is free.

This immersive documentary audio reenactment tells about the events that occurred in Murmansk on 18 June 1942, when more than 12,000 bombs were dropped on Murmansk.
18 June is now celebrated as the Day of Fortitude and Courage of Murmansk Residents during the Great Patriotic War.
All Murmansk schoolchildren know that on this day the northern city was subjected to the most terrible bombing of all Great Patriotic War and completely burned down. But this is not actually the case; the city was not burned to the ground. Visitors will get a first-hand view of many of the things that the residents of frontline Murmansk saw on that terrible and heroic day.
The main characters of the performance are real people who will tell about how they personally survived the awful bombing of Murmansk on that fateful day, how they found and saved kids from a local kindergarten, how they took them to a safe place, and how mothers were looking for their children among the fires.
These heroes include Mikhail Zharnikov, a tower observer who was the first to see and notify the townspeople about the enemy air raid, Alexander Voronin, chief of staff of the Maritime Polar Air unit of Murmansk’s Kirovsky District (now the Oktyabrsky District), who helped rescue kids from the burning kindergarten, and Vasily Goltsov, the head of a freight yard at the Murmansk station, whose house burned down before his eyes, yet he remained at his post. There will also be many other people whose fates completely changed on 18 June 1942.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

The Lenin nuclear icebreaker is the first vessel in the world with an atomic propulsion unit. It is the only cultural heritage site of federal importance in the city of Murmansk. More than 500 enterprises and institutions of the USSR took part in building the icebreaker at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad in 1956–1959. It was commissioned on 3 December 1959.
Over the next 30 years, Lenin provided navigational support on the Northern Sea Route and served as an atomic university that accumulated experience from year-round Arctic navigation operations, improved technologies, and trained personnel for the Soviet nuclear fleet.
The icebreaker led thousands of ships through the Arctic ice and traversed some 654,400 nautical miles, more than three times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It was decommissioned in 1989. On 5 May 2009, the Lenin nuclear icebreaker moored at the sea terminal in the centre of Murmansk and quickly became a calling card of the Murmansk Region and one of the most visited tourist sites in the Kola North.
The modern Lenin Nuclear Icebreaker Arctic Exhibition Centre is a structural unit of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Nuclear Fleet (FSUE Atomflot) of the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation.
The meeting point for the group is at the gangway
exact location

Tours are free for participants. The registration format is TBD.
All excursions are in Russian, except for 03/28/2025 11:30, at this time there will be an excursion in English.

Wearing headphones, Forum guests and young people from Murmansk will dance in complete silence to the sounds of their favourite music and songs performed by Arctic DJs.


Present your participant badge at the art centre’s box office to receive a discount.

The Lenin nuclear icebreaker is the first vessel in the world with an atomic propulsion unit. It is the only cultural heritage site of federal importance in the city of Murmansk. More than 500 enterprises and institutions of the USSR took part in building the icebreaker at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad in 1956–1959. It was commissioned on 3 December 1959.
Over the next 30 years, Lenin provided navigational support on the Northern Sea Route and served as an atomic university that accumulated experience from year-round Arctic navigation operations, improved technologies, and trained personnel for the Soviet nuclear fleet.
The icebreaker led thousands of ships through the Arctic ice and traversed some 654,400 nautical miles, more than three times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It was decommissioned in 1989. On 5 May 2009, the Lenin nuclear icebreaker moored at the sea terminal in the centre of Murmansk and quickly became a calling card of the Murmansk Region and one of the most visited tourist sites in the Kola North.
The modern Lenin Nuclear Icebreaker Arctic Exhibition Centre is a structural unit of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Nuclear Fleet (FSUE Atomflot) of the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation.
The meeting point for the group is at the gangway
exact location

Tours are free for participants. The registration format is TBD.
All excursions are in Russian, except for 03/28/2025 11:30, at this time there will be an excursion in English.