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

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

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.

See a video.