Vladimir Potanin Charity Foundation and British Council have announced the launch of a professional development program for museum specialists in the UK in 2010.

The aim of the program is to develop intercultural relations and to support museum designers working on the preservation and promotion of Russia’s cultural heritage.

The programme is specially designed for talented museum staff members focused on the professional growth who took part in the grant competition "A Changing Museum in a Changing World". A distinctive feature of the 2010 program is its target at those participants who have already implemented their projects successfully and received high peer reviews.

The Internship participants have been selected and approved by the award panel of "A Changing Museum in a Changing World" project, so 6 employees from local museums of Moscow, regions of Pskov, Rostov, Ulyanovsk, and Stavropol Territory will go on a study visit to the UK in the spring of 2010.

While choosing British museums, organizers were mostly considering those which are comparable in scale and activities to Russian local museums and which are dealing with similar problems of funding and attracting new audiences. During the visit, Russian experts will have a chance to get acquainted with innovative practices, the most successful and creative museum projects in the UK and to discuss their impressions with British museum managers and curators.    

The Internship Program for the winners of the VI "A Changing Museum in a Changing World" competition will be announced in the late January 2010.

Information about the internship program

Museum experts – the winners of “A Changing Museum in a Changing World” competition – have already twice been on a study visit to the UK which is considered one of the leading countries in the museum field. They have explored museums of varied size and focus area: artistic, historical, regional, industrial, memorial, located in England, Wales and Scotland.

According to the participants, they use the experience gained in the UK both in their daily and project work. Museum experts were particularly impressed by the strict orientation of British museums on the visitor, as well as on the quality of educational programs, commercial activities and the use of new technologies.  

As a result, program participants have implemented several projects using the experience gained in Britain. The most striking examples are the projects "Two Captains" (Museum and Exhibition Centre of Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai) and “The British trace” (Yegorievsky Museum of Art, Moscow region). In Nakhodka an interactive museum where visitors learn maritime history of the city through the game was established. In Yegorievsk the museum visitors are invited to find traces of British civilization in Russia's culture

2010 programme participants

1. Elena Dmitrieva, Kolomna center of informative tourism "Town-Museum" (Moscow reg.) Project "Museum of Kolomna pastille. History with taste "
2. Tatiana Eshina, State Memorial History and Literature museum-reserve Pushkin Mikhailovskoye (Pskov region.) Project "Museum mail"
3. Natalia Potapova, "Lights of Moscow" Museum (Moscow); project "Light Childhood”
4. Ludmila Safonova, Belaya Kalitva Museum of Local History (Rostov reg.) Project "Just life. Socialist Province".
5. Olga Turkina, Museum of urban life "Simbirsk of late XIX - early XX centuries." The State Historical Memorial Complex “Lenin’s Hometown” "(Ulyanovsk region.) Project “K nam na ogonek"
6. Anna Shvyreva, Stavropol State historical-cultural and nature-landscape museum-reserve n.a Prozritelev and Prave (Stavropol Territory); project "Stavropol region – the homeland of elephants".