Art connected St. Petersburg and Toronto
Teleconference between the two cities gathered around 30 Russian speaking people
On October 13, 2018, the International Association of Saint-Petersburg’s Friends hosted in Toronto an event dedicated to the famous Russian painter of the late 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, Ilya Repin.
In the course of this family-friendly occasion, a number of different exhibitions of local artists were held. In particular, artisans Yulianna Dolgonos and Serafima Zibnitskaya, together with the photographer Alex Levin, had a chance to display their artwork. The Art School Yes organized a children’s drawing contest, inspired by the famous Repin’s canvas Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan and the Soviet movie Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession. Meanwhile, the key part of the event was an international teleconference with the St.Petersburg State Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design. An introductory speech, followed by a report on Ilya Repin, was given by Vitaly Gambarov and Nina Galitskaya, members of the St.Petersburg Art Union. According to the founder of the Association Alex Dymov, as reported by Tass, approximately 30 people took part in the conference.
“Due to technical reasons, Moscow, Montreal and San Francisco did not manage to join.”
The International Association of Saint-Petersburg’s Friends
As stated on the official website of the association, it is a nonprofit public organization founded in 2017 and focused on culture, art, education, science, tourism. Besides cultural events and teleconferences, the organization promotes St. Petersburg as a destination place for tourism, and sponsors the Leningrad Blockade’s survivors in Toronto and one of the children’s hospitals in St. Petersburg. The association’s team consists of member from Canada, the United States, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia, while their head office is situated in Toronto, ON.