According to the Sobaka.ru team, ITMO is the Russian leader in science art. Since 2017 – when the university launched a Master’s program in the subject – ITMO has established a corresponding research center and founded an art residency that hosts the annual graduate exhibition STAGE. In 2023, the center launched its BioArt Lab – the first such department in Russia. Now, the center also offers a PhD program in Art & Science.
Yana Miloradovskaya, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, believes that ITMO is adept at both envisioning and shaping the future, so it’s only natural for the Art & Science Center to win Sobaka.ru’s first-ever award for cultural institutions.
“We introduce new categories for our awards based on the events we see in St. Petersburg every year. As we looked back on the last two years, we realized that the city has been craving an interdisciplinary cultural institution – and it has been created thanks to ITMO. We value the university’s Art & Science Center for bringing public attention to the future rather than the past. It’s worth noting that the center is great at managing communications in art, culture, and science while emphasizing horizontal relations between its members,” shares Yana Miloradovskaya.
These days, the center’s team is composed of 13 experts. According to Elizaveta Menis, the team’s head, over the past year, the center has been focusing on external projects. Two examples are a public program organized at the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow and the first ASTA award for young artists.
The team of ITMO’s Art & Science Center and ITMO Rector Vladimir Vasilyev at the award ceremony. Photo courtesy of the center
“For us, being among the top 50 means that we are moving in the right direction, that we are already a prominent player in the city’s cultural landscape. Suffice to say, this wasn’t a trivial task, given that we are an art center based at a tech-oriented university. On our agenda now are more educational events and exhibitions for St. Petersburg citizens; however, we are also looking beyond the city. For instance, this summer we are planning to partake in the NUR festival in Kazan and bring another public program to the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow,” says Elizaveta Menis.
The Top 50 Famous People in St. Petersburg Award is one of the oldest in the city, dating back 18 years. Annually, it is given to entrepreneurs, artists, clinicians, designers, musicians, and representatives of other fields who have most influenced St. Petersburg. This year, the award features 9 categories: Fashion, Business, Art, Science & Life, Cinema, Music, Books, Cultural Institution, and Theater & Show.
Among other winners in the category Cultural Institution are the teams of the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre and of Dom Radio (Radio House), featuring the musicAeterna orchestra with its conductor and founder Teodor Currentzis.
