VLADIVOSTOK, September 5. /TASS/. The international cultural and educational project, dubbed The Great Northern Campaign. The Arctic as Art, to mark the 500th anniversary of Russia's history in development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) will be launched in 2025. The project will present a series of regional exhibitions, an Arctic expedition, business and competitive programs, the Arctic Initiatives Center's Director General Rustam Romanenkov told TASS on sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.
"The project will have three stages. The first is a regional stage, which will run from Murmansk to Vladivostok in images and conversations, starting from late March through to September, 2025. At the second stage, we will have a creative Arctic expedition onboard the 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker from July 25 to August 25. We will sail to the North Pole from Murmansk with a stop at Franz Josef Land, where we plan to open the northernmost museum, to raise the Russian flag, as well as to make a humanitarian message to the world. All this will be finalized by an exhibition in Moscow from September, 2025 to March, 2026," he said.
The project is presented at the Eastern Economic Forum at the stand of the Ministry for Development of the Far East and the Arctic. It presents Russia's most important achievements in the Arctic, the courage of pioneers and sailors, the strategic importance of the Northern Sea Route, the North's culture, inventions and discoveries in the development of the Arctic, the nuclear icebreaker fleet creation, the development of Arctic territories.
The regional stage will focus on the regions' achievements in development of the Arctic and NSR. The organizers plan to present previously unseen items from regional museums and to use most advanced technologies in expositions. "The language of numbers is the language to use when talking with young people," the center's director stressed, adding the organizers also planned tablet exhibitions and a business program to discuss development of northern cities.
The organizers want to attract the audience, and they will offer competitions, including an open competition for artists, contests for creative youth, events to select the best exhibit in every region, the best performances, and design of the North's urban environment. The project will offer a children and teenagers' program, which will have after-school activities, master classes, roundtables on Arctic topics, theatrical projects on the North's epics and fairy tales, as well as thematic shifts in children's health camps. "We have agreed with our two wonderful centers - Artek and Orlyonok - that in 2025 they will host special shifts dedicated to the Northern Sea Route of the Great Northern Campaign," he said.
The Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) is underway on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok on September 3-6, 2024. The main theme of the EEF in 2024 is "Far East 2030. Combining strengths to create new potential."
The EEF is one of the largest international conferences in Russia. It has been held in the Primorsky Region’s Russky Island in Vladivostok since 2015. The Forum is the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decreed that the event be held annually.
The forum's objectives and goals include promoting the accelerated growth of Russia’s Far East region; assessing its potential for exports; expanding international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region; showcasing the investment appeal of the region, its steadily progressing territories, and the Vladivostok free port.
The Roscongress Foundation has served as the Forum’s organizer since 2016.
TASS is the general information partner of the EEF.