Russian culture abroad: First Russian Culture Center in Italy opens in Venice

The first Center for the Study of the Russian Culture in Italy opened on March 6 2011 at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The opening ceremony was attended by the Russian First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva, Minister of Culture of Russia Alexander Avdeev, Italian Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini, Mayor of Venice Giorgio Orsoni and other high-ranking officials of both countries.

The center established by the Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives, which Mrs Medvedeva heads, will operate at the university’s Russian Language and Culture Department.

The center was opened within the framework of the Year of Russian Culture and Language in Italy and the Year of Italian Culture and Language in Russia.

The center’s director professor Silvia Burini told that the center had great plans: in June it will launch an exhibition of rarities from the State Hermitage Museum and an exposition displaying works of modern artist Dmitry Prigov. The latter will be timed to the Venice Biennale. In autumn the center will hold a festival of the young Russia’s cinema. The first initiative undertaken by the center was an exhibition of works by the Russian artist Sergey Andriyaka, founder of a unique “Watercolor school”.

During the center’s solemn opening ceremony the Moscow Theological Academy library received a certificate which donated to it 21 568 books on the history of religion, theology, philosophy from different libraries of the northern Italy and papal universities of Rome.

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice was founded in 1868 as Italy’s first business school, but today it is better known as one of the country’s best universities for studying foreign languages. Forty languages are taught at the university, with Russian occupying a prominent place: the university’s Russian department is considered one of the leading in Italy.