Between Two Cultural Capitals: HSE University — St. Petersburg and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Hold Conference on Arts and Culture
Master’s Programme ‘Arts and Culture Management’, HSE University — St. Petersburg and Master’s Programme ‘Arts Management’, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, held the first conference ‘Transformation of Business Models in Art and Culture during a Crisis’ aiming at bringing together practitioners and students to debate the current trends in the arts and culture sectors. Practitioners from St. Petersburg and Milan shared their experience.
The main goal of the conference was to promote knowledge exchange between the two universities and representatives of art and culture institutions to generate ideas for innovations and addressing issues in the cultural and creative industries and promote lateral thinking and empathy in a phase of uncertainty.
Milan and Saint Petersburg enjoy their right to be named cultural capitals of Italy and Russia respectively, and both cities witness common challenges in arts and culture. The opportunity to discuss trends and prospects is much needed during the times of crisis and uncertainty.
The expert panel composition was represented by experts from Faberge museum, St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, Alexandinskiy Theatre New Stage, Street Art Museum (St. Petersburg) and Milano Musica association, Negri-Clemente law firm, Cape Town Art Fair, Giò Pomodoro archive (Milan).
Students of HSE University - Saint Petersburg presented projects covering multiple issues in creative industries and ranging from business models in arts and culture to street art hunting, from the ecosystem of cultural institutions to the arts and culture blogging ecosystem. Meanwhile, students of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore invited the participants to learn more about private donations promotion for contemporary music production, incorporation of art and food for communicating women empowerment in developing economies, and even integration of visual and performing arts to address the climate challenge. Of course, it was hard to leave the acute issue of covid impact on creative industries out of the discussion, so students discussed how to manage visitor’s intention to revisit a museum and how Milanese galleries had addressed the covid emergence.
Sofia Grigoryeva, Deputy Director Visitor Services and Development at Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg
‘I hope this conference will become a good tradition. The event was great from the organisational viewpoint. The quality of the reports impressed. The conference was dynamic and informative, there was a room for discussions and experience exchange. Student projects, their presentations and language skills met high standards.
I am thankful for having an opportunity to meet Italian colleagues and discuss relevant issues together. It is great to see that we share a similar position on the current situation in the culture industry, and we are ready to help each other work on modern problems and challenges.’
Tatiana Pinchuk, Director of Street Art Museum
‘Nowadays, student research and projects on all these topics are significant. We have recently faced a global crisis, and we must adjust ourselves to it and look for new tools and strategies. Practices like these can serve as a great basis for further research and many organisations!’
Olesya Markova, Leading Specialist at the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre New Stage
'It was a pleasure to be at the conference. I did not know that it implied such a profound and professional discussion, and I was happy to be part of the event and listen to my colleagues. We wish to join further meetings, where we are could share our experience and insights obtained during the quarantine and under restrictions.'
Anna Petrova, Head of External Affairs of St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Concert Hall
'I would like to thank HSE University – Saint Petersburg and personally Julia Trabskaya and Natalia Belyakova for the invitation to participate in the conference ‘Transformation of Business Models in Art and Culture during a Crisis’ in frames of graduate programme ‘Arts and Culture Management’ as an expert on culture.
I really enjoyed the student projects, which were characterised by their professionalism. Exchange of experience between our countries is also interesting: we have much in common, and we have many prospects for joint projects implementation. We certainly savoured the communication with the Russian and Italian colleagues in the field of culture. I would like to wish further prosperity to projects like this one!'
Nikita, student of the programme 'Arts and Culture Management'
‘Participation in ‘Transformation of Business Models in Art and Culture during a Crisis’ conference seems very useful to me as it gave me the opportunity to discuss the topic of my current research project with the Italian colleagues and get important comments from them. Moreover, some of the presentations I saw myself also caused my interest – I am sure I will use this knowledge in the future. It would be great if such inter-university scientific conferences, where students can speak on their projects, were held more often.’
The graduate programme 'Arts and Culture Management' provides substantial training in the management in art and creative industries. Visit the International Admissions page to learn more about how to apply.