From 14 to 16 December in St. Petersburg was hosted the biggest event in the history of a cultural Forum devoted to the 70th anniversary of UNESCO. It gathered more than 11 000 participants at 82 venues in the city. The event was attended by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Director-General of UNESCO Mrs. Irina Bokova, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, as well as other dignitaries and artists.
Events
The Forum held more than 250 events, including
3 Awards - All-Russian action "Philanthropist of the Year", award presentation by the Agency for Management and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments "Best Implemented project of preservation and adaptation of cultural heritage to the modern use" and the first presentation of the award named after Anatoly Lunacharsky;
40 round table discussions and more.
At the venues were held up to 50 events simultaneously.
Within the Forum took place other major conferences and meetings, for example, III St. Petersburg International Tourism Forum, the Forum of Slavic Cultures, II International Forum in the framework of the partnership "Northern Dimension" in the field of culture "Culture as a factor of growth", VI International Congress "Russian literature in the global cultural context. The results of the Year of Literature", the program of UN activities and many other events.
The most prominent events were the Plenary Session dedicated to the 70th anniversary of UNESCO, the Ceremony of passing the baton from Year of literature to Russian Year of cinema, the Opening ceremony of Circus on Fontanka river after renovation and the Opening ceremony of the exhibition «The territory of Culture».
The festival program "Under the auspices of the Forum" is this year’s innovation. The inhabitants and guests of St.
Petersburg have an opportunity to visit more than 140 cultural events from september till the end of 2015.
Venues
The total number of 82 venues situated in St. Petersburg were involved in the cultural Forum.
The key events took place at two of them: the General Staff Building of the State Hermitage and the Russian Museum of Ethnography
The work was organised within 12 sections, each of them representimg one cultural area.
The division of all the events in 4 flows is this year’s innovation.
Participants
The following people performed at the Forum:
The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin;
The Director-General of UNESCO, Mrs. Irina Bokova;
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets;
Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky;
The Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko and other guests of high standing and cultural workers.
More than 11 000 people, about 1000 of them being guests from abroad, took part in the Forum.
The event was visited by 16 ministers of culture from various countries internationally,
8 deputy ministers,
7 heads of Foreign Offices
12 diplomats.
The total of 68 countries internationally were represented at the cultural Forum.
Documents of importance
The heads of sections presented the project of Declaration on protection of culture in armed conflict areas at the Final plenary session of the Forum.
The total of about 20 agreements on cooperation in culture sphere were signed.
Apart from this, the signing of the resolution on the results of sessions within the section “Literature and reading” had been planned.
Cooperation with the media
About 600 journalists representing more than 250 mass media entities were accredited for the IV St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.
In order to make the work of the media representatives more convenient 2 press centres as well as a separate hotline for journalists were set up.
The company OJSC “MegaFon” is a telecommunication partner of the IV St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.