City

Irina Sedykh: the country cannot move forward without improving its small towns

31 October 2018

Irina Sedykh, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the OMK-Uchastie Charity Fund after All-Russia conference on small towns and historical settlements Revitalization of Small Towns through Involvement of Local Population in Cultural Practices told us how charity and involvement of the local communities helps in the development of small town.

- Irina, what is your opinion about the idea of small towns development in Russia?  

- There are over 1100 cities in Russia. Almost 940 out of them are small and medium-sized towns. According to the Ministry of Statistics, about 25,000,000 people live in them. So, according to the data of the Ministry of Construction, over 80% of them have an urban environment, which, let’s say, is not suggestive of comfortable living. Small towns still tend to lose in population, including due to residents’ relocating not only to big cities, but also to towns, which are more comfortable for living. I agree with the experts’ opinion that the country cannot move forward without improving its small towns. Small towns, especially historical settlements, are a true cultural and historical heritage of our multinational country. The importance of this heritage seems to be forgotten by the 15 cities with over one million inhabitants. 

- The Fund OMK-Uchastie has been having the Art-Ovrag festival in Vyksa for several years. How does it correlate with the charitable activity of the fund?

-  Our charity fund has been working in the cities of presence of AO (JSC) United Metallurgical Company since 2008, and mostly these are small one-company towns. We provide targeted assistance to those in need and to the families and children in crisis situations, we support medical institutions, and develop educational methods.

An idea of the Art-Ovrag Festival that we have been having with the help of our partner OMK in Vyksa since 2011, was developed by the Fund and closely relates to our goals. The initial meaning of the festival, and for the first years it had been about youth culture, was to offer young inhabitants of Vyksa new opportunities for clever and effective leisure time, to distract them from bad habits. In 2013 the festival moved to a new level, and now its main goal is to directly support the development of comfortable urban environment through cultural projects. Besides, we want to enhance dialogue with local communities and authorities, add new tone to historical context of Vyksa. It is really important mission for us, as the town is closely related to the plant which is significant for the company. The fact that such approach moved to a new level of public policy and is supported by Ministry of Construction of Russia proves that we are on the right way. 

Our partner – OMK does not have any direct profit here. But to maintain a sustainable business, it is crucial for the employees and other inhabitants to have a good environment for living and development, for them to use a well-developed infrastructure and modern public spaces. For this reason, we are mobilizing funds and experts for the development of urban environment, conducting complex work, through our Fund as well, though programs of systematic charity and direct investments of the company in the development of public spaces. Experience of work in Vyksa is of great significance to us.

-  Can the improvement and creation of new centers of attraction help small towns?

-  It seems to me that the problem of generating employment, enhancement of communal, educational, and cultural infrastructures for normal livelihood cannot be solved only by means of improvement, particularly by improvement that is out of touch with the needs of the inhabitants. The problem of one-company towns and small towns in general is complex, and problems of each town are very specific. An important goal in the sphere of development of small towns (and not only small ones), and our activity in particular, I think, is development of the initiatives of the citizens, helping them with finding new senses of living in small town, teaching methods of creation of comfortable urban environment with their personal participation, programming social changes.

-  Have you noticed any changes in Vyksa through these years of work of Fund or in its inhabitants’ behavior?

-  It is worth saying that one of the largest and most progressive metallurgical enterprises in Europe operates in Vyksa, so company has some resources to initiate and support changes in the town. Though the effect is measured not by the funds.  It is more important to combine efforts of business, experts, town authorities, representatives of local communities in work on improvement of urban environment. This factor becomes one of the crucial one for the progress of towns.

An example of British Newcastle, where government-owned corporations have been investing monies into redesigning environment of this former mining town for 30 years, illustrates that fundamental changes require other time intervals, resources, and funds. Our small fund has been functioning in Vyksa for 10 years, Art-Ovrag takes place for the 8th time. In such a short term over 90 contemporary art works have been created, art-residence is functioning, the company has renovated sites of cultural and industrial heritage, industrial tourism has been developing, as well as social entrepreneurship. I can see that for the last few years we managed to awaken in some part of Vyksa inhabitants a sincere wish to change the urban environment. They started acting like agents for changes, and this is the most important here. This is a change both on the level of urban landscape and in people’s minds. New local business emerges, as well as new ideas for cultural projects.

All-Russia conference on small towns and historical settlements in Vyksa that we had initiated and which was conducted with the help of Ministry of Construction of Russia, sets as its goal searching and accumulation of these ways of revitalization and development of towns, and also information-sharing. At the conference we presented methodological manual “Creating your town” where we gathered our experience in Vyksa.

-  What results did you expect from the conference, which results met your expectations and which did not?

-  Over 300 delegates took part at the conference from about 100 cities of Russia. For the first time within one expert venue we gathered heads of municipal structures, representatives of business and professional communities. Over 40 leading Russian and international experts in the field of development of public spaces in towns, participation design, architects, design engineers, economists, urban specialists, representatives of ministries and departments of the RF spoke at the conference. 

I think that conference was very successful. It became a powerful boost for further development of the topic of revitalization of small towns of the country: it created conditions for serious expert dialogue, exchange of competencies, and also provided opportunity to attract the inhabitants of Vyksa themselves and tell them about experience of other towns. Now we are waiting for new practical results for Vyksa and similar territories, and surely for new ideas.


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