For Immediate Release
Contact: Maura Shelden
Open World Leadership Center
Tel. 202-707-6197
mshelden@openworld.gov
Washington, D.C. — Four Russian historic preservationists participating in the Open World Program will arrive in Washington on Thursday, October 20th to begin a week long informational program focusing on best practices in municipal historic preservation. The delegation, consisting of historians, journalists, and activists engaged in historic preservation issues in St. Petersburg, will meet with local preservationists, activists, city and federal government officials, and NGO leaders. The group will tour downtown, historic Washington neighborhoods, and historic landmarks such as Union Station, Old City Hall, the Library of Congress, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the National Mall, Mount Vernon, Frederick Douglass House, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House. In addition, the delegation will attend an October 27 meeting of the Historic Preservation Review Board, where several proposed historic landmark designations and the American University Washington College of Law will be on the agenda.
The visiting delegates are:
• Boris Kirikov, Director, Research Institute for History and Theory of Architecture and Planning, St. Petersburg
• Aleksandr Margolis, Board Chair, Resource and Information Center, Memorial, St. Petersburg City, and Co-Chair of The Presidium, Russian Society for Historic and Cultural Preservation, St. Petersburg Chapter
• Yuliya Minutina, Coordinator, Living City
• Dmitriy Sherikh, Deputy Director and Deputy Editor in Chief, Publishing House, "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti"
The delegation is a partnership between Open World and the Likhachev Foundation in St. Petersburg. The Historic Preservation Office of the D.C. Office of Planning is coordinating the program. The logistical host is Tanya Tanya Woynarowsky.
Managed by the independent Open World Leadership Center, Open World is designed to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the United States and the countries of Eurasia and the Baltic States by developing a network of leaders in the region who have gained significant, firsthand exposure to America’s democratic, accountable government and free-market system.
The U.S. Congress established Open World in 1999 to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the United States and Russia. In 2003, Congress made all post-Soviet states eligible for the program. Thanks to Open World, some 16,500 current and future Eurasian leaders have experienced American civil society and have been exposed to new ideas and practices that they can adapt for use in their own work. Open World also promotes partnerships and continued communications between delegates and their American hosts and professional counterparts. Open World currently operates exchanges for political and civic leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Support for the cultural program is provided through partnership and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information, please contact Maura Shelden, Open World Public Affairs Officer at 202-707-6197. For more information on Open World, please visit http://www.openworld.gov.
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