Letter from St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office
Unofficial Translation
Government of St. Petersburg
Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg
Smolny, St. Petersburg, 191060
July 5, 2010, Ref. #3098/10
Mr. Frederick Andresen
President, LASPSCC
Los Angeles, California, USA
Dear Mr. Andresen,
On behalf of the Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko allow me to thank you for your letter and the Los Angeles St. Petersburg Sister City Committee’s initiative to organize the exhibition of artworks created by Los Angeles Unified School District.
The exhibition has been successfully exposed in St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after Alexander Shticglitz. It has drawn the attention of the citizens, and its organizers plan an artworks feedback of St. Petersburg students in Los Angeles next year.
Hope, this project will cause future development of ties between our cities, in which we are sincerely interested.
Sincerely yours,
Alexander Prokhorenko
Member of the Government of St. Petersburg, Chairman
“A Twenty Year Friendship Between Los Angeles and St. Petersburg”
The Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Sister City Committee and the Los Angeles Unified School District
invite you to join them to the closing ceremony of the exhibit “A Twenty Year Friendship Between Los Angeles and St. Petersburg”,
on May 6, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
at Charles White Elementary School Gallery, 2401 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles.
“A Twenty Year Friendship Between Los Angeles and St. Petersburg”, is part of an art and cultural exchange and citizen outreach project between the students of Los Angeles Unified School District and their peer in St. Petersburg. Approximately one hundred fifty Art Works of LAUSD, Local District 4, students will be displayed at Charles White Elementary School Gallery, from May 3 to May 6. The exhibit will then be shown at the annual International Art Festival, Master Class, in St. Petersburg in June 2010.
Deputy Mayor of Education, Joan Sullivan, and Deputy Mayor of Children, Youth and Families, Miriam Long, will represent Mayor Villaraigosa. Los Angeles District 4 Council Member, Tom LaBonge, is expected to attend the beginning of the ceremony. Monica Garcia, LAUSD Board President, Byron Maltez, LAUSD, Local District 4, Superintendent, and James Kodani, LAUSD, Local District 4, Assistant Superintendent will also be present.
Joint congratulation certificates from LAUSD and LASPSCC will be delivered to the artists at the end of the ceremony.
Click on News or Projects / Arts Project or www.youtube.com/user/laspscc
Arts Project
The Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee is developing an art and cultural exchange, and citizen outreach project between the students of Los Angeles Unified School District and their peer in St. Petersburg.
In the first phase, LASPSCC plans to exhibit a small number of paintings made by the LAUSD students and Los Angeles university students at the annual Master Class Festival in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2010. The following year, the program will be expanded to reach a larger group of artist students, while concurrently exhibiting paintings in Los Angeles from St. Petersburg students.
Master Class is a non-profit organization supported by the State Hermitage Museum, the Ministry of Cultural of the Russian Federation, the Committee of Culture from the State Duma, and the Administration of St. Petersburg. The President of the Festival is the Director of the State Hermitage Museum.
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova was born on this day, June 23, 120 years ago.
The LASPSCC is proud to have sponsored the restoration and digital preservation of Akhmatova’s “Poem Without a Hero” by Dr. Natalia Kraineva, a Senior Fellow at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. The presentation of the book will take place today in St. Petersburg at the “Anna Akhmatova, 21st Century: Her Works and Destiny” conference.
LASPSCC Fundraiser
UPDATE: See photos of the event here.
The USC IGM Art Gallery & Los Angeles – Saint Petersburg Sister Sity Committee cordially invite you to join a virtual, artistic tour to Saint Petersburg through visual art, film, cultural discussion and live music with the current exhibits:
The Public Statement: Environment, Society and Institutions by Alexey Steele and Raymond Carrillo
Observations/Reflections by Larisa Pilinsky and Dr. Yingge Liu
SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2009, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m; Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted for the LASPSCC wall at the LAC+USC Medical Center Art Council “Adopt a Wall for Art Program.”
Please RSVP by June 23, 2009
Institute for Genetic Medicine 2250 Alcazar Street, Second Floor, Los Angeles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Masha Ziering 714.914-7661 caprie2000@gmail.com
Young professionals practice diplomacy through the Arts
A joint project with the USC IGM Art Gallery and Los Angeles Saint Petersburg Sister City Committee
LOS ANGELES, June, 9, 2009
Twenty years ago Los Angeles and Saint Petersburg, Russia, became official sister cities with the goal to practice a joint cultural and diplomatic program. On Sunday, June, 28, 2 PM to 5 PM this process will be demonstrated at the University of Southern California (USC) Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery on the USC Health Sciences Campus in East Los Angeles.
An international group of innovative young professionals plans to screen a short film about Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Italian Director Francesco Donni. A panel discussion on Russian and American art and culture will follow the screening. Russian born singer, Elizaveta Khripounova, will take guests on a musical tour of beautiful St. Petersburg, often referred to as the Venice of the North.
The USC Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery and its current exhibitions, The Public Statement: Environment, Society and Institutions and Observations/Reflections will acquaint participants with art work by Russian and Chinese born artists and a first generation Mexican-American artist working in Los Angeles. Guests will participate in a dialog on rapid global change through themes on the force of nature and social institutions. Artists Alexey Steele, Raymond Carrillo, Larisa Pilinsky and Dr. Yingge Liu, or docents will engage visitors in the discussion.
The Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee is a 501 (c)(3)non- profit organization dedicated to facilitating the flow of culture, ideas and capital between the two cities. It has, over the years, promoted and supported cultural exhibits and exchanges, educational programs, medical exchanges, charitable projects, as well as facilitated business and technological cooperation between the two cities.
The June 28 event is dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of the interchange between the two Sister Cities and funds to frame art for the LAC+USC Medical Center Art Council’s “Adopt a Wall for Art Program”. Acknowledging that “Art Enhances Healing”, the LAC+USC Medical Center Art Council was established in 2007 to obtain, install and maintain works of art for the new state-of-the-art LAC+USC Medical Center (familiarly known as County General Hospital) directly adjacent to the 80-year old facility in East Los Angeles.
Anna Akhmatova
The work by Dr. Kraineva on the poems of the famed Anna Akhmatova continue with our help at the State Library Archives in St. Petersburg. Dr. Kraineva’s initial focus was on the poet’s famous work “Poem without a Hero.” Akhmatova’s work is particularly hard to condense into a final format as she wrote on whatever paper was available to her and erased and wrote over it. Its final form is digitized for use by the UC Digital Library. The archives are in Moscow as well as St. Petersburg. Our money has gone to provide a computer, printer, and related expenses. She will soon be starting on another major poem. This is an important cultural project and we supply her money as needed from our special fund having it hand delivered by Evgeny Maksakov.
Fred Andresen – President
We welcome Fred Andresen as our new President, who was unanimously elected at the Board Meeting on October 22, 2006. Fred has been a very active Board Member, whose personal knowledge of St. Petersburg through his business ventures and cultural passions will greatly benefit the LASPSCC.
Medical Committee Project Progress
The project is continuing with ongoing contacts with the Russian faculty leaders, the trained faculty (3) and the Special Fellows who began postgraduate training in September 2004.
The Project is a model for the international medical community devoted to assisting developing countries. The unique characteristics include:
- Collaboration and trust between the Russian leaders and Western experts;
- Continuity – all the physicians who started in 1998 are still involved and continuing involvement with the 3 trained faculty;
- Two high ranking members of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) visited St.Petersburg in May 2006 and visited with faculty and saw the new unit headed by Dr. Andrey Gurevich.
Dr. Norbert Lamiere who was one of the visitors stated to Dr. Fred Finkelstein of our group that “the unit was the best he had seen in the developing world” – he was impressed with the accomplishments of the project and supportive of team members continuing and participating in activities currently planned for June 2007.
The team held a detailed conference call on July 31, 2006:
- Dr. Finkelstein reported on an international meeting in Vicenza held in May where he spoke with Dr. Lamiere;
- Dr. Cohen reported on the ISN Moscow meeting;
The group considered its next steps:
- Communicate officially with Dr. Lamiere
- Communicate with Dr. Konstantin and Dr. Andrey Gurevich
- Provide a working draft for ourselves and others, as needed, for us to consider before the International Meeting of Nephrology, San Diego – November 2006
Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade
Sister Cities International (SCI) participated in the 2005 Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade held on Sunday, November 27 in Hollywood, CA. Part of SCI, The Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Sister City Committee was well represented during the day’s festivities by young ballerina Kasha Kropinski. Dressed in a beautiful ballerina costume, Kasha represented the dancers of the legendary Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg.
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