The grant contest “A Changing Museum in a Changing World” was launched in 2004. It is organized by the Vladimir Potanin Foundation with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications. The aim of the contest is to support the best projects and management decisions in the museum business, which promote the active development of the socio-cultural spheres and the economies of the regions, and also stimulate the growth of the professional museum community.
All state and private museums and museum organizations based in the Russian Federation are eligible to take part in the contest.
The key objectives of the contest are the following:
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To identify the best practices of the museums’ activities, which enhance a new role of museums in changing socio-cultural and economic landscape;
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To promote and to support new innovative management in the museum business aimed at creation and dissemination of the new products and forms of activities;
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To facilitate and to promote partnership cooperation between the museum community and the organizations from other industries, for instance, tourism, education, mass media, social security, small- and medium-size business, etc.;
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To enhance and support the museums’ communicative capabilities, which enable further promotion of the social significance of the industry’s activities.
The contest runs in 6 nominations:
- Museum and Tourism Technologies;
- Museum and New Educational Programs;
- Joint Museum Programs;
- Museum Exhibiting Technologies;
- Museum research and survey;
- Socially Oriented Museum Programs.
The contest’s semi-finalists participate in a special workshop designed as a forum for the further refinement of projects refining and opinion exchange. Leading Russian and foreign museum experts assist them. Finally, the jury names the winners who became the grant recipients. The grants are given to the most brilliant, unusual in concept and realization projects of the big and the small Russian museums.
In 2006, 512 applications from 63 regions of Russia were issued. Grants were awarded to 15 projects. A sum of $ 300,000 was allocated for this program.
