Urban Culture During the Pandemic

The pandemic and the self-isolation regime introduced everywhere have an impact on every dimension of urban life. On April 22, 2020, during the online session, experts discussed how the COVID-19 outbreak is affecting the cultural aspect of our communities. Over 200 representatives of local and regional governments, non-profit organizations and leading figures in the field of culture across the world took part in this event.

This online conference continued the series of live learning webinars launched by UCLG in cooperation with the UN-Habitat and Metropolis. UCLG-Eurasia was represented by Secretary General Rasikh Sagitov, Head of the Department of External Economic Relations of the Ufa Administration Anzhelika Zhelnova, Head of the Department of International and Intermunicipal Relations of the Kazan Municipality Ruslan Galiakhmetov, Deputy Head of the Committee on Culture and Youth Policy of the Stavropol Administration Irina Roshchina, Academic Secretary of the Yelabuga State Historical and Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve Tatyana Nazarova and others.

Speakers from different parts of the world shared their measures to preserve culture during the pandemic in their cities. Ther also presented adaptive tools that help cultural institutions to stay afloat at this difficult time.

Thus, Director of the Museum of Novosibirsk Elena Shchukina told the participants about the museum quarantine (#музейныйкарантин) campaign. The press service of this museum actively communicates with users, takes into account their preferences and comments. ‘After the announcement of the quarantine, the Museum of Novosibirsk decided to enhance its activity in social media. The Museum Quarantine is the name of our new project. Every day of the week is dedicated to a specific theme under a special hashtag in a social network. Any user of Instagram and Vkontakte can find out many interesting things about history of Novosibirsk,’ highlighted Elena Shchukina.

The participants from other regions included Mayor of Lalitpur (Nepal) Chiribabu Maharjan, Vice-Mayor of Barcelona (Spain) for Culture and Education Joan Subirats Subirats, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Karima Bennoune, Minister for Culture of Buenos-Aires (Argentina) Enrique Avogardo and others.

The session was moderated by Secretary General of UCLG Emilia Saiz and Coordinator of UCLG Committee on Culture Jordi Pascual.

22.04.2020

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