Rustam Minnikhanov: Our task is to ensure integration of scientific work into education in the sphere of culture and arts

On 25 March the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the regional Minister of Culture Irada Ayupova, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the republic Rifkat Minnikhanov, the Rector of Kazan State Institute of Culture and Arts Roza Akhmadieva and representatives of a number of cultural and scientific institutions took part in a meeting of the Council on Culture and Arts by the Rais of Tatarstan held in the Government House of the republic.

Opening the meeting, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov emphasized that under conditions of global challenges, the issues of understanding the national cultural code and mechanisms of its translation is the foundation of the national safety of the country. Implementation of this task is impossible without comprehensive scientific research and its integration into current work of cultural institutions, he said.

The Rais of the republic stated that many institutions in the republic are doing research in issues of national identity and self-consciousness, preservation of cultural traditions and passing them to descendants; however this work is quite often disparate and duplicated.

“Our task is to ensure integration of scientific work into education in the sphere of culture and arts and to raise efficiency of enlightment activities. Today, as never before, it is important to be united in this sphere, especially taking into consideration work done by us during the Year of Scientific and Technological Development announced in the republic. At its time the Tatarstan Government established scientific and educational clusters in different spheres to solve this problem, “Rustam Minnikhanov said and reminded about unprecedented infrastructural projects being implemented in the republic such as the new building of Kamal theatre, the Crafts Center in the former Trade Center, new museums and others.

He said that under conditions of reformatting international relations the interest to cultural and historical foundations and the civilizational code of the Russian society is growing and there is a search of new purposes for Eurasian integration. “In this respect the establishment of the Center for Research of Nomad Civilizations initiated by the regional Academy of Sciences opens new opportunities for international cultural projects,” Rustam Minnikhanov said and reminded about international events to be hosted by the republic in the current year.

The regional Minister of Culture Irada Ayupova informed participants of the meeting about the Prototyping Center established at Kazan State Institute of Culture and Arts for developing and testing new technologies and ideas for facilitation of the development of culture, three creative industries schools working in the republic, the amount of exhibits of regional museums, which exceed 2m units, archeological, ethnographic, historic and paleontological expeditions and a number of infrastructural issues being solved in the Bilyar Museum-Reserve.

She also reminded about an important event which took place in 2023 when the Astronomy Observatory of Kazan Federal University was inscribed into the UNESCO Heritage List. “Currently there are few sites that have both architectural and scientific value in this List and this gives special importance to the fact that the Kazan Observatory was inscribed into it,” Irada Ayupova said.

Rifkat Minnikhanov told the meeting that the current structure of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences tends to increase the national and cultural constituent part and currently 2 of 7 structural departments of the academy are related to research in the sphere of culture.

He attached special attention to training scientists and doctoral studies and gave numbers of people studying at different humanitarian spheres in the republic.

Rustam Minnikhanov attracted attention of participants of the meeting to the necessity of synchronizing work of all members of scientific community in issues of research of historical and cultural heritage and asked to study and use experience of colleagues from other regions of Russia and abroad. He also proposed to organize next year a cultural forum with a special session for young scientists studying cultural identity

On top of that the Rais of Tatarstan touched upon the issues of safety taking into consideration the recent tragic events in Moscow region and gave an errand to all heads of Ministries, cultural, educational and other facilities together with law-enforcement bodies to carry out a comprehensive check of antiterrorist protection of their facilities and to organize trainings with their staff for ensuring all necessary safety measures.