Press Release, 11.02.2019

Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova sent an appeal to Vladimir Medinsky, Minister of Culture of Russia, calling on the Minister to help the Rachmaninov Novgorod City College of Arts to retain their premises in the territory of the Novgorod Kremlin.

Slabunova also appealed to the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor) with a request to check the validity of the decision of the Novgorod Minister of Culture to move the college to premises that do not meet the requirements of the educational process. The politician asks Mikhail Katyukov, Minister of Science and Higher Education, to inform Yabloko whether the relocation of the college has been agreed with his Ministry.

In January, Emilia Slabunova visited the Novgorod region and met with the staff of the music department of the Rachmaninov College of Arts. The college staff told Slabunova about the plans of the local ministry of culture to transfer the music school from the building in the Novgorod Kremlin to the premises of the Yaroslav the Wise University. The staff of the music department of the college received the order to move to other premises verbally on the eve of the New Year from the Minister of Culture of the region. All the attempts to obtain a written order from officials failed.

The premises in the University where the college was ordered to move do not suit for the music school. A hostel of the corridor type was previously located there, the premises are two times smaller than the premises the college has at present and need major repairs. There are big doubts whether the floors of the fourth floor can withstand the weight of the musical instruments: there are 28 grand pianos weighing from 500 to 700 kg and 20 pianos in the music department.

Also there is a problem of safe transportation of expensive musical instruments. As the University has narrow staircases, the wall of the university building at the fourth floor level has to be broken and then the pianos maybe raised to a hole in the wall with the help of cranes.

Teachers fear that the move will affect the quality of the training of specialists in music education and culture not only in the Novgorod Region, but also in the whole North-West of Russia. Rachmaninov’s music competition conducted among students of music schools is also under threat now. Moreover, the relocation may lead to the closure of the unique museum of composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Anton Arensky and Anatoly Lyadov (who lived in the region), which is located in the premises of the music college in the Novgorod Kremlin.

In the 2000s, the number of music, art and dance schools decreased by 15 per cent. The number of cultural and leisure establishments fell by 13 per cent over the past decade. The Yabloko Bureau adopted a statement demanding that the Ministry of Culture, regional and local authorities cease the process of liquidation of music schools and colleges, and also repeal their decisions of ousting the existing institutions to the outskirts of cities or unsuitable premises.