On the 25th of December in Troitskaya Lane on Sobornaya square Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature gave start to the Literature on Ice Skating Rink project.

Starting at 5 PM and until 7 PM, citizens had an opportunity to go on the improvised stage and read a Christmas themed or any other poem. Many people read poems dedicated to their Homeland, teenagers and young adults read poems by Esenin, Pushkin and Akhmatova..

58 people aged 3-20 participated in the event.

The best readers received various prizes: a ticket to the Trampoline Park family entertainment complex, a ticket to the Adrenaline sports park, a guest card to the Vinnovskaya Roshya amusement park, an invitation to the Lost World dinosaur park, a ticket to a New Year's performance in Sovremennik concert complex, a ticket to a New Year's performance in Ruslan recreation center and ice cream from the Ulyanovsk Ice Cream Factory..

The Snow Maiden (Ruslan recreation center) and Centralized Library System staff made sure to create a friendly Christmas and New Year’s Eve atmosphere.

Literature on Ice project was created and organized by Ulyanovsk UNESCO Literature City team and assisted by Culture and Leisure Department of Ulyanovsk Administration.

The Literature on Ice Skating Rink in Troitsky Lane welcomes citizens until December 30th, 5PM to 7PM. Skating Rink will also be open on January 7th from 5PM to 7PM. 

VK post here. 

The Forum, a key business meeting in the field of tourism, was held from the 7th to the 9th of December.  The forum was organized by the St. Petersburg Tourism Development Committee and the Congress and Exhibition Bureau.  Sustainable development of tourism and its impact on the socio-economic development of regions and the country in modern conditions became the main topic of discussion.

 Sergey Korneev, Chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg, Nana Gvichia, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg participated in the meeting as well as deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of specialized areas and representatives of other countries.

Head of Ulyanovsk City of the UNESCO Creative Network program E.E. Cherkas shared Ulyanovsk team's experience in cooperation with other countries. E.E. Cherkas emphasized that the City of Literature status has significantly expanded international cooperation with writers from other 39 UNESCO Cities of Literature. For example, since 2015, writers from Slovenia and New Zealand have already visited Ulyanovsk, and this aroused great interest from the world and Russian press, as well as citizens.

Saint Petersburg is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy

 The Saint Petersburg’s title of a Gastronomy City in the UNESCO Creative Cities network allowed Ulyanovsk to combine literature and gastronomy themes.

Natalya Saharova, the brand chef of Ulyanovsk restaurant holding Matreshki Group, presented the process of cooking a very special recipe inspired by the 19th century cuisine – Oblomov’s Quail. It’s a quail that is baked in bacon and stuffed with liver, juniper, apples, pumpkin, greens. Forum’s participants were surprised with such a unique recipe!

A round-table conference took place on the second day of the Forum. There, the participants discussed the impact of creative industries on development of UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

E.E. Cherkas told the participants about UNESCO Creative Cities Festival called Crossroads. She shared that Kazan (City of Music), Saint Petersburg (City of Gastronomy), Kargopol (City of Crafts and Folk Art) participated in the Festival. The event was declared the Best Creative Event 2022 in Ulyanovsk region.

The Crossroads Festival aroused great interest among the Travel Hub 2022 Forum’s attendees. Representatives of different regions of Russia were curious to learn more and asked questions. Ulyanovsk Creative City of Literature team also presented the International Writing Residency Project. It was created by UNESCO and started in 2019. The Residency gave opportunity to writers from other counties to live in Ulyanovsk for a month and immerse themselves in various literature related projects, as well as talk to citizens and write a literary piece about the city. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, the project had to be paused. In near future, Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature team plans to restart it.

The final day roundtable discussion was focused around the topic of Environmental City Tourism. E.E. Cherkas presented Ulyanovsk as a Creative City and told the attendees about Ulyanovsk spheres of culture, literature, history and geography as well as gastronomy and production.

The Forum opened prospects for cooperation between Ulyanovsk UNESCO Creative City of Literature and the representatives of various regions of Russia and the world. 

Posts on social media:

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On December 15th, the final meeting of the Creative Cooperation Program between UNESCO cities of the BRICS countries UNESCO Creative Cities of the BRICS countries: Art Together was held.  The meeting covered the question of emerging cooperation between the UNESCO Creative Cities of the BRICS countries.

For the time period of an hour and half, speakers and meeting participants joined the online conference to discuss possible projects and initiatives that could be co-created and co-planned using the BRICS Creative Cities of UNESCO network. Representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa shared their thoughts, ideas and accomplishments of the year 2022.

E.E. Cherkas, head of Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature program, shared Ulyanovsk team's experiences in the fields of international cooperation and participation in the projects within the UNESCO Cities of Literature network.

The meeting participants learned that in 2022 a translation center has been established by Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature program and also the first Russia-Brazil online conference was held. Students from Ulyanovsk had an opportunity to talk to the students of the University of Brasilia.

On the 17th and the 18th of December, starting at noon through 8 PM, The City Boulevard Festival will be held. Ulyanovsk residents and guests of the city are warmly invited to enjoy Christmas atmosphere and to take part in Festival’s family friendly activities.

Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature team was invited to take part, too. Here’s what we’ve got to offer:

- all Festival participants will get an opportunity to play a Sony Playstation game console for free or travel to the world of fairy tales in VR glasses;

- City libraries team will hold New Year related workshops on creating ‘baby’ books and unique New Year's photo frames;

- Everyone will get a New Year's prediction for 2023, as well as the opportunity to make a wish… A magical suitcase, used to store the ‘wishes’, will handle the ‘all sincere wishes to be fulfilled’ process.

- Enjoy taking pictures? The New Year's photo zone is something you’ll definitely have fun with!

We are looking forward to meeting you in the indoor arena of UlSPU on December 17th and 18th.  Enjoy the Boulevard Christmas Festival with us!

A meeting with a representative of the New Era.Education Dr. Kumar Dharmendra was held on November 28th. It took place in the mayor's office of Ulyanovsk and was chaired by the first deputy head of the city V.I. Andreev.

The main issue discussed was of socio-cultural adaptation of Indian students who study in higher educational institutions of Ulyanovsk.

The deputy head of the city I.B. Mitrofanova, heads of structural divisions of the administration of the city of Ulyanovsk, head of the Ulyanovsk UNESCO Creative City program directorate E.E. Cherkas and UlSU student activists took part in the conversation.

1200 students from India are currently studying in Ulyanovsk. The participants of the meeting proposed to hold events that would allow Indian youth to get acquainted with the cultural heritage, historical sights of our city and country. Students from India will get an opportunity to tell about their traditions, culture and history to Russian students, too.

Ulyanovsk UNESCO Creative City program directorate proposed representatives of India to have a conference call of friendship with Russia and conclude a Cooperation Agreement.

Engaging Indian students in the socio-cultural activities of our city is one of the primary tasks Ulyanovsk UNESCO Creative City program directorate works on.

Note: The New Era.Education is engaged in supporting students from India who wish to receive higher education abroad, including in Russia.

The formal award ceremony took place today at Business Environment in Russia-2022 - the XIV Ulyanovsk Business Forum.

We thank the II Regional Award in the Field of Creative Industries for their attention to municipal activities aimed at developing and supporting creative industries. We also thank everyone who took part in the online voting and supported this project.

The Crossroads Festival, a festival to represent UNESCO Creative Cities, was held in September this year. The idea to create such a festival belongs to the Department of Culture and Leisure of the Ulyanovsk City. Creative Technologies Foundation ‘Ulyanovsk, Culture Capital’ and the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO became the partners of the event.

The Crossroads brought together more than 1,500 participants and visitors, and also representatives of four cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network: Ulyanovsk, Kazan, St. Petersburg and Kargopol (Arkhangelsk region).

Link VK.