Narmin Shiralieva: "Our motto is accessibility and quality"

A little less than a year ago, governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov appointed Narmin Shiralieva as the Minister of Culture of the Moscow Region. She was born in Baku, graduated from the MGIMO, worked at the Kultura state television channel as correspondent, columnist, host of news report and interviewer of the Khudsovet program. In the fall of 2013 she joined the Moscow Region Governor’s administration. In an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza Narmin Shiralieva spoke about the most significant events in the field of culture in her region.

- You have been the Minister of Culture of the Moscow Region for almost a year. Can you sum up the results that have been reached during this time?

- It's extremely valuable to me that we're working on the strategy proposed by the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov, which envisages work with cultural objects in the context of national project, the task of which is to maximize all budget expenditures, all of our activities, all of our efforts. Our goal is accessibility and quality. When it comes to accessibility, cultural institutions of the Moscow Region are as open as possible today, and we have many social programs. If we talk about the festival movement, we try to ensure that all of our festivals are informative, so that people who strive for higher level of culture participate in them. Our international Tchaikovsky Art Festival in Klin was added to the Association of World Festivals, which includes oldest festivals around the world. We presented our project, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, and it has already been added to international list of big events. There are a lot of events like that.

- What kind of agreement did you sign with the Tretyakov Gallery?

- Cooperation agreement with the Tretyakov Gallery involves joint projects in the context of educational programs, exhibitions and social projects. Director general of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova proposed unique projects and ideas. Museum becomes a powerful public platform when it expresses not only museum ideology, but also becomes a place for expression of new ideas, for meetings, for social projects. Now there's an entire series of significant social projects that can be promoted through the museum, for example, the project for adaptation of migrants proposed by the Tretyakov Gallery.

- 2019 was declared the Year of Theater in Russia. What projects are you implementing in this area?

- We've already held a number of new theater festivals. We held the Pushkin Theater Carnival in the Bolshoi Vyazemy estate with competition of regional theaters. Another important project is the Moscow Region Poster of Moscow Theaters, which is dedicated to the memory of Oleg Tabakov. Moscow Region invites prominent theaters from Moscow that are associated with the works of Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov: Moscow Art Theater, Tabakerka Theater, Theater of Nations, Pushkin Theater. We will show several more popular performances in the region this fall.