Culture and Art

Nizhny Novgorod is one of the biggest historic, cultural and scientific centers of Russia.

There are more than 600 unique historic, architectural and cultural monuments in the city; that gave grounds to UNESCO to include Nizhny Novgorod in the list of 100 cities of the world which are of great historical and cultural value.

There are about 200 culture and art institutions of regional and municipal subordination in Nizhny Novgorod.

Among these institutions there are 8 theatres, 5 concert halls, 97 libraries (with branches), 17 cinemas (among them - 5 cinemas for children), 25 institutions of children optional education, 8 museums (with branches - 16), 7 parks, 4 specialized secondary educational institutions (Nizhny Novgorod Balakirev musical school of have been functioning for 130 years, Nizhny Novgorod choral singing school – opened on the basis of the boys choir in 1946, Nizhny Novgorod drama school – established at the close of XIX century, Nizhny Novgorod artistic school – opened 80 years ago), Nizhny Novgorod Glinka state concervatory – inaugurated in 1946, Nizhny Novgorod Academic Philharmonic society – year of 1937, 18 club-houses, children’s health-improving camp “Zelyony Gorod”.

International Sakharov arts festival, All-Russian Pushkin opera and ballet festival “Boldino Autumn”, International festival of charitable program “New Names”, International festival of ensembles playing age-old music “High Renaissance”, Russian festival of theatrical skits “Merry Goat”, Drama festival “Golden Mask” and a great number of exhibitions and contests for children are traditionally held in the city and give rise to deep resonance in the sphere of professional art.

One of the biggest concert organizations in Russia is Nizhny Novgorod state academic philharmonic society (905 places) established in 1937. 10 festivals called “Modern Music”, the 1^st world festival dedicated to Shnitke’s works, 7 International Sakharov arts festivals were held by this philharmonic society. In 2001 the latter was acknowledged the best provincial philharmonic society in Russia in contest “Window to Russia”.

Nizhny Novgorod Pushkin state academic opera house (1152 places) was inaugurated in 1935. During 67 years 407 performances were staged in this opera house. Today its repertoire includes 20 operas, 16 ballets, 3 operettas and 1 musical.

Nizhny Novgorod Gorky state academic theatre (702 places) was established in 1798. Now the theatre occupies one of the leading places in Russia due to its artistic-and-creative potential. Thousands of plays have been staged in the theatre during its working period.

Nizhny Novgorod state academic puppet-show (386 places) opened its 1^st theatre season in 1929. Today its repertoire consists of 35 performances for children and adults.

Nizhny Novgorod Krupskaya state young people’s theatre (805 places) is the only in the city having the small stage on which Russian and Western plays have been performed for more than 15 years. The basic principles of this theatre are classical drama and modern play, fairy tale and romantic heroic spirit.

Municipal theatres – “Comedija” (475 places, opened after the reconstruction in 1999), Young people’s theatre “Vera”, Stepanov chamber musical theatre – performed 31 new productions and over 1700 plays during the last 3 years.

Municipal groups – chamber choir “Nizhny Novgorod”, soloists ensemble “Sofia”, folk song ensemble “Ljubava”, rhythm-and-plastic company “Preobrazhenije” – performed 60 new concert programs and over 400 concerts during the last 3 years. Nizhny Novgorod district orchestra and Nizhny Novgorod Russian folk orchestra work with success as well.

Nizhny Novgorod Glinka state conservatory (inaugurated in 1946) is one of the most authoritative art and cultural centers in Russia. It is famous for its existing musical traditions and educational methods. The teaching stuff of the conservatory comes to 161 people. The conservatory graduates comprise the basis of all professional musical groups of Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhegorodsky region as well as of the teaching stuff of special educational institutions.

Art schools for children accomplish a task of common artistic education and children's primary professional orientation. 1815 teachers work and about 15000 students study in these art schools. The students take part in contests of the highest level due to their brilliant skills and knowledge. During the last two years 42 students and 8 groups became international contests laureates, 130 students and 8 groups - all-Russian and interregional contests prize-winners correspondingly. Creative groups and performers gave concerts in 11 countries and 24 cities of Russia.

Museums play a great role in preservation of historic and cultural heritage of the city. Nizhny Novgorod state historical and architectural reserve-museum was established in 1958. There are 277 thousands of units of issue in its basic reserves. Annually 90 thousand people visit this museum. As for municipal museums - Gorky museum, Dobroljubov literary and memorial museum, Sakharov museum - their visitors are 300 thousand people in number. During the last year 4800 excursions and 610 actions (exhibitions, presentations, meetings) were held in these museums.

Private galleries "Yurkovka", "Yemelya's Gallery", "2/2", wood sculpture museum "Green Twig" were opened in Nizhny Novgorod.

Cinemas "Octyabr", "Sputnik", "Kanavinsky", "Rossiya", "Matrix", "Mir" have entered into investment contracts and changed due to the reconstruction. The number of visitors doubled and made audience of 993 000 in 2002.

One of the largest regional libraries in Russia is Nizhny Novgorod Lenin state regional universal library. In 2001 the latter celebrated its 140^th birthday. The library stock is 4 million issues. The library users are 53 thousand people in number. Regional libraries for children and blind people carry out a great amount of work. 655 specialists work in 60 adult and 34 children municipal libraries with the total library stock nearly 3,5 million issues. During the last year the number of readers came to 357 thousand people.

On average during the year cultural institutions of the city organize approximately 12 thousand actions for all population groups, visited by more than one million citizens of Nizhny Novgorod.

Ministry of Culture of Nizhegorodsky region was organized in 2001. Since the turn of 2002 it is headed by Sedov Vladimir Ivanovich.

Since 1998 the head of Department of Culture of Nizhny Novgorod City Administration is Gorin Sergei Alexandrovich.