As Nina Yanykina, head of the Project Management and Innovation Department and acting dean of the Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations (FTMI), noted, the new creative space will attract those who are interested in creative development and help them find a community of like-minded people.

“To us, the launch of CHAIKA is a milestone event; at FTMI, we have always been focused not only on quality education, but personal development, as well. We are open to everyone’s ideas, be it a creative session, a photo exhibition, a poetry meet or a jam session for young musicians. We want to make this a place where people can spend a quality time and meet friends and kindred spirits. We’re interested in all proposals that serve to create an atmosphere of creativity and innovation,” – she says.


Credit: Marina Lebedeva

The Sunny Petersburg exhibition showcases works by members of the Art Petersburg photographic community, centered around the theme of sunlight in the city. Art Petersburg is also a non-profit partnership; it was founded in 2005 by amateur photographers to help them protect their authorship rights and set up exhibitions.

“We’re not just setting up an exhibition or a series of workshops – we are starting a creative space; on our VK page, everyone can share their ideas and suggestions. Our plans already include a poetry salon and a musical parlor. As for visual art, we’re not stopping at photography; we will also display latest achievements in VR and 360-degree video,” – says Marina Lebedeva, vice dean at FTMI.


Credit: Marina Lebedeva

On the opening day, the renowned Russian photographer Yuri Molodkovetz – and the chief photographer for State Hermitage Museum – held a workshop, during which he spoke about the specifics of museum photography and his most unusual projects.

Scientist Andrei Khrennikov from the Linnaeus University (Sweden), well-known in the international community for his books and articles on quantum theory and its applications. His lecture concerned new interdisciplinary research into the use of quantum processes in social and humanitarian sciences and cognitive economics. Today, this research has inspired new scientific areas, such as sociophysics and econophysics, which aim to model complex social, psychological, economic and financial systems and processes using physics.


Andrei Khrennikov. Credit: Marina Lebedeva

Creators of the space have already announced another of its initiatives called “Classics at the first non-classical”. With the support of ITMO’s Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, a number of lectures will be held by art expert and employee of the Russian Museum Galina Zhirkova.

CHAIKA creative space will also be home to the Light Writing School (on the use of the photographic technique), a musical and a literary parlors, the poetry salon “SLOVO”, experimental modern art workshop “Supernova Flare”, the “My History” club, the “Stroganov Mansion” museum, a co-working space, a design gallery and others.