St. Petersburg Public Foundation to Promote Culture and Education

The St. Petersburg Public Foundation to Promote Education and Culture, being a member of the International Academy of High Education, is a non-commercial amalgamation that cooperates with cultural, scientific and educational centres throughout Russian Federation and those of the CIS states as well. The Foundation had been established and registered in St. Petersburg on 10 th of April 1996.

The permanent partners of the Foundation are the administrative bodies of autonomies, countries, regions, and cities, public organisations, cultural and educational institutions.   In the sphere of culture in St. Petersburg the Foundation cooperates with the State Hermitage, the Russian Museum, Pushkin National Museum, the State Philharmonia and Capella Singers, the Goethe- Institut , the British Council, organises assessable to all charitable concerts participated by the renowned musicians. These concerts use to be arranged monthly gaining about thousand and a half audiences each.

Annually the Foundation takes part in organising International Musical Festival “The Palaces of St. Petersburg”. Within a decade the Festival turned to be an unbreakable part of the great city cultural realm. The Foundation assists in invitation of world best companies and soloists to take part in the Festival. Among them – the State Academic Chamber orchestra of Russia under Constantine Orbelian.

In the sphere of education the Foundation maintains permanent partnership with a number of most prestigious high schools, e.g. SPb State Polytechnic University , State Baltic Technical University (Voenmech), SPb State Electrotechnical University (LETI), Petersburg State Transport Communications University , SPb State University for Economics and Finance Studies, SPb State University for Naval Technologies. Within that partnership the Foundation conducts large-scale activities with the objective to help the graduates in their choice of future profession with also helping the high schools in search of talented graduates from distant regions of the country.

The St. Petersburg Public Foundation to Promote Education and Culture maintains also publishing activities disposing its own Publishing House “Severnaya Zvezda” (The Northern Star) established in February 2001. By the end of 2005 it has produced more than 50 titles of scientific and educational books, country guides and artistic literature. The greater amount of this production consists of textbooks and manuals to free distribution among students who wish study in Russian. Some of manuals published here in 2003 gained popularity also outside St. Petersburg , e.g. English Textbook for two first years is being used as a standard manual in Lomonosov University Moscow.

In 2001-2005 the Foundation has been awarded with State Duma (Russian Parliament) diploma, which provides the right to use Golden Quality Sign “For Children All the Best” (for developing of a cultural and educational project named “Student of St. Petersburg”), but in 2004 – with theatrical prize of Alexander Volodin. The authors of some publications became “Tsarskoselskii Art Prize” and “ Petropolis ” prizewinners.

Since Dec. 2003 the Foundation provides publication of the monthly newspapers i.e. the “Sankt-Peterburgskii Muzykalnyi Vestnik” (The Musical Herald of SPb) and the “Sankt-Peterburgskii Vestnik Vysshei Shkoly” (The High School Herald of SPb). Both of them are distributed free of charge.

Legal and physical persons, supporting the Foundation's activities, build up the expedients of the Foundation of donations. Those are being used for cultural and educational needs