Vladimir Putin held a meeting
on identifying, supporting and training talented youth
in the arts.
November 17, 2017
18:30
St Petersburg
Meeting on supporting talented youth
in arts.
The meeting was held
in the New Stage building of the State Academic Mariinsky
Theatre.
Opening speech at the meeting
on identifying, supporting and training talented youth
in the arts
President of Russia Vladimir Putin:
Good afternoon, friends, colleagues.
Today, I suggest that we discuss ways
to support young people. As you are aware, we have been paying much
attention to this area in recent years across many different spheres,
including research activities, creative projects and blue-collar
professions. We are covering different areas.
Today, I would like to talk about
things that are close to you, and discuss ways to support young
talented people who are being trained or are taking their first steps
in the arts. Of course, this is one of the most
important areas.
Long-standing and rich traditions
of creativity, great schools of theatre, art, ballet, and music
are certainly part of our national heritage. Russia continues to hold
strong, if not leading positions in this area. The state, cultural
figures and the public should not just preserve these traditions, but
build on them and ensure continuity.
This is a prerequisite
for the harmonious, mature, and free development of our
society and our entire country. Our competitiveness in culture
and the arts will be just as important for our future,
which is taking shape literally before our eyes,
as in the spheres that I have just mentioned, primarily,
the hard sciences, technology, and the like.
We are now forming an entire system
aimed at identifying and discovering young talents. I have
already mentioned these areas which include science, engineering,
and blue-collar professions, and, of course, sports. We should focus
on supporting them as they make their first steps in their
careers, which are sometimes the most difficult. Our discussion today is
also designed to elicit suggestions for innovative and more
effective approaches.
It is obvious that working with talented
and creative young people, especially in a sphere like culture,
requires additional flexibility and unusual approaches, as well
as doing away with standardised templates, mechanical uniformity
and other such things. We should not narrow the training
of creative professionals down to simple “educational services.”
I have heard people criticise this
phrase many times. You know, it is impossible to get away from it
completely, I understand this, but I also understand that this is
something bigger than just a service. By the way, our colleagues
in healthcare say the same thing.
According to expert assessments, we
have accumulated a whole host of problems, which must be solved
to preserve the high level of training in the arts.
The most important of them is the so-called sectoral approach we
have now, which means categorising culture as part of the social
sphere only, which has been the traditional approach.
According to many of your
colleagues, its norms and rules, including financing methods, target
indicators and current tender and accounting systems have become
something like a Procrustean bed for culture.
Perhaps this view is debatable, but we can
partly agree with it, of course, it is not groundless.
Let us spend some time on this issue,
as well as other aspects, and I am ready to talk about
them. Let us discuss what measures are necessary to create the most
favourable approach to developing culture in general and education
in this area in particular.
I would also like to discuss
the issue of financial support for professional training
in creative fields. Let me note that the initiative
of the participants of the Tavrida National Youth Forum has
already been implemented. They proposed, if you remember – maybe some took
notice – to give talented people an opportunity to receive
a second degree in culture and the arts free
of charge. Today it is prohibited by law.
There are 20 additional grants
for that, which will be provided each year on a competitive
basis. The application for them has already been reviewed
at the Presidential Grants Foundation.
I would like to stress that these
grants will be added to the money, big money in fact, that
the foundation already allocates for projects in culture
and the arts. Non-profit organisations have received 621 million
rubles for this this year alone.
Let us also discuss which measures we should
take to increase the quality of training creative professionals
and to create the necessary conditions to form
the next generation worthy of Russian art.
Who would like to begin?
<…>
Vladimir Putin: I am not going
to make a closing speech now, but I would like to reassure
you that we will try to summarize all that has been said and we will
respond to it as soon as possible.
These open [procurement] tenders that Mr
Zaslavsky and many colleagues have mentioned, they are not necessary
for everything aside from general everyday items such as paper clips,
curtains and chairs, which can be purchased at open tenders,
and this should be done.
But the rest, everything related
to creative activities, does not fit into this Procrustean bed
as I have mentioned, and it is not possible to fit it
there. Therefore, amendments certainly need to be made.
As regards the arts
and culture in the education system being assigned to some
department, I think you are right to a large extent. Once more,
I do not wish to try and solve these issues
on the spot. But we will work towards this.
Lastly, Mr Matsuyev began and Mr
Bashmet finished speaking about discovering and training talented young
people. This all depends on funding. We have already discussed this with
our colleagues, and I propose adding a new element
to the presidential grants system –support for talented
young people to help them take their first steps without thinking about
money.
Denis Matsuyev said his grandmother had
to sell her apartment. So we must make sure young people have
opportunities, because not everyone has parents who can do such things
and grandmothers who can sell something. And there are talented young
people – musicians, actors, authors – and we must provide
assistance to them.
This is the first part.
And the second part of this grant should go to discovering
talented young people. We will make this addition to presidential grants
an annual thing; it will amount to one billion rubles.
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