2021 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
15th Edition 2021
Supports are subject to the following rules:
- You can support up to 5 proposals.
Since 2017 the Cultural Environment project has been implemented in Kazan City. As part of the project first events were held in Park “Krylia Sovetov” and “Derbyshki” where local folk dance groups presented modern choreography. Later on there were street cinemas and open art exhibitions were held in different city sites. During 2018 our project developed as on historical sites of Kazan we hosted an open air festival which included theatrical performances, concerts of classical and folk music along with exhibitions both of modern and contemporary art. As part of outdoor city events there were plenty of other festivals for residents which included activities such as songs, dance, fun street games, colourful theatre performances, master classes and excursions. All hosted activities were free to attend.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020 we redeveloped the concept of our project. “The Cultural Environment'' project has resumed work online on Instagram, VKontakte, YouTube, Zoom platforms. As the Kazan City and Russian Federation adjusts to the new reality of life under self-quarantine in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of cultural and educational institutions, volunteers along with artists and independent musical institutions started to take virtual shows and gigs, give master classes and lectures to spread and share some art joy during these trying times. We decided to satisfy all residents’ needs and organized plenty of different activities to make sure that each resident of the city can relax, learn or study from the safety of his couch. There is an official site of the project where visitors can find a guide with all upcoming live streams, online lectures and classes or virtual museum tours. All events are free to attend. Moreover there is a video archive where all events are collected and can be rewatched any time. Pandemic gave a new birth to our project as now the audience of Cultural Environment has multiplied. Residents of the city started to genuinely like to immerse in culture online. In a recent future we hope to extend the scope of CE and invite international artists, teachers and lecturers in order to deliver a more complete and diversified product in culture, entertainment, education or linguistics.
The project "Cultural Environment Online" was awarded a special mention of the XIII International Competition of Urban Practices "The City Where You Want to Live". 98 thousand people already took part in more than 400 virtual events.
This proposal has been accepted because: