Marking the 15th Anniversary of its activities, on October 14 2014 The Vladimir Potanin Foundation presented its new museum strategy. The main priorities of this new strategy are openness and accessibility, which means developing a wider information field and providing a wider access to it, education and training, which stands for supporting museums as modern centers for education in arts, history and sciences, support of professionals and experts, which will lead in its turn to improving the prestige of the profession as well as museums themselves. This changes in approach have come as a result of a year long discussions and meetings with experts and grantees as well as of an internal evaluation of the Foundation’s programs.

To achieve the established goals, the Foundation is considerably modernizing its previous programs and launching a number of new ones. The Partnership Program with its grant fund of about US 575 000 a year is going to unite the Foundation’s resources with the ones of leading Russian museums to implement various initiatives in innovative spheres. Among the first participants of 2014 are such key players in the field as the State Hermitage – the Foundation’s long time partner, the Polytechnic Museum and the Kunstkamera (the museum of Anthropology and Ethnography founded by Peter the Great).
The Museum Guide Program with the grant fund of about $ 175 000 is aimed to promote those museums which are ready to surprise and attract visitor by means of their their location, rich or unusual and unique collections, infrastructure, appealing atmosphere and active experts. The program will also favor museums enhancing their activities and covering new fields and will provide grant competitions which will help to promote museums in social media and improve their influence in the society.
The international cooperation program called Museum Bridges with the grant fund of about $ 500 000 a year aims to help museums get acquainted with the best examples of museum activities and practices in Russia and internationally, to introduce new formats in museums’ operation. The program will include competitions for study visits and educational programs in Russia and abroad, as well as a competition for the support of intermuseum collaboration.
The Program A Changing Museum in a Changing World, which has been in operation since 2004, will change its format with the focus on the support of museum professionals aiming at up-to-date project approach and solutions, applying innovative methods which help at the same time to better preserve and interpret Russia’s cultural heritage. The Program also will focus on strengthening collaboration ties within the professional network community as well as with outside organizations.
We believe that all these new steps and the updating of the existing programs of the Foundation will help to more actively reach out to the public, better preserve our cultural heritage, have a positive impact on the development of territories and increase a number of open sites for a dialogue about culture. At the same time it will assist museums in strengthening links and connections with their visitors and public in general, enhance their role as an open institute and education center, increase a number of museums’ ‘friends’, establish relations and cooperation with experts from various cities and countries and improve links within the existing professional network.