Strelka Institute
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Uday DandavateStrelka Institute
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Uday DandavateC
INSTITUTE FOR A SOCIAL CITY INSTITUTE FOR A NEW EDUCATION INSTITUTE FOR CIVIC AWAKENING INSTITUTE FOR ENGAGED CITIZENS INSTITUTE FOR INTUITIVE CHANGE INSTITUTE FOR TRYING AND SEEING INSTITUTE FOR THE EVERYDAY INSTITUTE FOR INITIATING CHANGE
Co-Imagining the dream of Moscow
Yesterday I visited the Strelka institute in Moscow. An amazingly inspiring experience it was. Five years ago, Strelka was started as a stock exchange for human capital, a place for shaping a flow of creative energy. It was founded with the objective of transforming Russias physical and social environment, with cities being the platform for that change.
Strelka Institute provides free tuition for international young specialists with backgrounds in architecture, design, social sciences, etc. Its courtyard hosts open lectures, conferences and film screenings. Its bar provides both a place for the social networking of creative people from around the globe.
The Director of summer programs, Anna Shirokova gave me a tour of the place. We had conversations over dinner to explore possibilities for organizing a workshop this summer for a wider audience in Moscow. I experienced a sense of inspiration at the Strelka Institute. The campus helped me to imagine what the atmosphere at Bauhaus
would have been. At Strelka I find A group of inspired individuals with a mission to transform a society through political, cultural,
psychological and material transformations.
This was my first visit to Moscow and it makes me feel Moscow offers a great platform for partnering with a society eager to change. The youth are full of ideas (much like the youth in India), there is enough baggage from the past that offers them a motivation for change. Yet, at Strelkathere is a desire for managing a creative transformation.
StrelkaInstitute is located at a very interesting spot in Moscow. Not too far from Kremlin and Bolshoi theater, it is located near an old chocolate factory, by the bank of river Moscow. On the other side is
another icon of Moscow- the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where on February 21, 2012, five members of the Russian feminist punk-rock group Pussy Riot staged a performance of "Punk Prayer - Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!". by evening, they had turned it into a music video and it was all over the internet.
The Strelka Institute is bound to inspire imagination of a new Moscow and of Russia. The Strelka bar is always buzzing with Moscow bohemia. Its academic program is unique. 30+ students receive free education and a monthly stipend for sustenance. It hopes to attract talent from around the world to inspire a surge of creative ideation.
I am looking forward to working with Strelka Institute this summer to co-imagine a new dream for Moscow through participation of the creative community of the city.
