Artist’s across the Water~ LA and St. Petersburg

It’s a wonderful start in understanding the world, when children can paint for friends across the sea, and learn about the world and its different people.  One thing learned is that we are not so different. For the second year the Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Sister City Committee is sponsoring a student art exchange between student’s of the Los Angeles and St. Petersburg, Russia.

The LA display of several hundred paintings, including 82 from St. Petersburg has just closed and will be on its way to St. Petersburg in late June. It will be displayed in this famous Russian city as part of the renowned Master Class International Art Festival during the fabulous “White Nights”   this summer.

The painting shown above is the work of the 9-year old Maxim Domochevsky.

Learn more about St. Petersburg, Buy here “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”. Your comments are welcome.

Art Across the Ocean

The Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Sister City Committee again in 2011 has sponsored a Children’s Art Exchange Exhibition between the students of our sister cities.  The LA exhibit opened May 12 and will close June 4. About 200 paintings from LA Unified School District and 82 paintings from St. Petersburg are on display. It looks really beautiful. It can be seen at the Charles White Gallery: 2401 Wilshire blvd., LA , 90057. All are invited.

 Children and families attended the opening and many will go to the closing reception as well. The exhibit will then go to St. Petersburg, Russia  as last year for a special exhibit during the famous “Master Class International Art Festival,” in June. Our great thanks to Masha and Muriel and the officials of the LA Unified School District here in LA, and to the wonderful people in St. Petersburg for what they are doing there.

It is great to be sponsoring an event like this. There is so much good to be done with the children expressing their knowledge of and respect for their brothers and sisters across the sea. There is a growing respect and interaction between the US and Russia and we are proud to be part of it.

See last year’s exhibit on www.laspscc.org. 

Learn more. Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

St. Petersburg~A Favorite City of Mine

As usual in Russia, it is a place of mixed meaning and effect. Founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as his “Window on the West” it is still that and for that reason a place at arm’s length from the rest of Russia. And for that reason, one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

 St. Petersburg is a feminine city. She is an elegant and noble woman sitting draped with the jewels of her youth waiting for her prince to return. It is the most beautiful Italianate city in Europe. This “Venice of the North” with its symmetry, canals, architecture, statuary, museums, performing arts, palaces, gardens and languid summers with endless days make it a city never to be forgotten. The palaces are more flamboyant than Versailles and more numerous than anywhere in the world. I used to call it “Paris without paint,” but for the 300^th anniversary in 2003, the lady polished her nails, groomed her hair and donned a clean and colorful dress.  From my book, “Walking on Ice, an American Businessman in Russia.”

 St. Petersburg is not Russia; it is the historical myth of Imperial Russia. St. Petersburg is charming, gentle, romantic. It goes to bed at ten. But during the glorious summer White Nights it doesn’t sleep at all.

 As President of the Los Angeles/St.Petersburg Sister City Committee, I keep reasonably in touch.

 What do you think? Have you been there?

Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

What is it about Russian Women?~ Part 3, the “babushkas.”

This is the Part 3 of my weekly series about Russian women.  It’s about the babushkas, bless their hearts.

The babushka, or grandmother, has a special role in Russian history and life. They are the social conscience, and humorously, the collective mouthpiece of Russia. They have an opinion about everything. They are fearless; they talked back tank drivers at the Russian White House in 1991, they march in political demonstrations (all sides), they guard the lobbies of apartment houses, they beat away gypsies attacking foreigners in the street (as they once did for me). They sat outside my building on long summer nights, petting the house cat, enjoying the children playing hopscotch on the pavement, complaining about the immoral price of milk or the crooks in the Kremlin. Yes, they also sweep the streets and sidewalks with stick brooms–someone has to do it.

Sometimes intimidating with their dour, deeply-bred suspicious looks, they can quickly return a smile exposing a few gold teeth or none at all, or start a conversation, or willingly give a direction. They often live alone or in depressing communal flats struggling to maintain their dignity. Our Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee supports a charity group that serves some of the dear ladies in that city. I remember dearly my visits with a few. One was 95 years old and fought the Nazis in that terrible “900 days”  war of attrition- wonderful sweet lady. They deserve help and are one group you don’t want to have against you.

 Come back next week for the Barbies and the beaten.

Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

 Your questions and comments are welcome.

Good Sisters Make a Good Family

It is such a pleasure to see the good that is done when people of different cultures respectfully get together. The result is a realization of how much we have in common, not in difference. Harmony and mutual appreciation happen—and we learn so much.

I have the pleasure of being a member of the Los Angeles/St Petersburg Sister City Committee (LASPSCC) and presently its president. I love St. Petersburg, its history, its architecture, its art and culture, its people, and its role in today’s Russia. My favorite involvement is with the “babushkas” in St. Petersburg.  A nonprofit group directly helps these deserving old ladies unable to get out and care for themselves. I have loved meeting some of these delightful women, heros all. One I met, at age 95 then, commanded artillery firing at the Nazi’s infamous 900 day bombardment of their city in 1941-43. Each week a helper shops for them, fixes meals that last for a few days, and tends to other needs.

Our committee was founded in 1989 and has raised money and helped orphanages, medical programs, and a home for veterans of the stage. We have brought over to L.A. teachers, lawyers, city officials, and others to learn more about how a city like Los Angeles works and governs an active democratic citizenship. We are helping a dedicated scholar to collect, preserve, and digitize the works of the great poet Anna Akhmatova. Now we are supporting a children’s art exchange.

The U.S. sister city program originated in 1956 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a people-to-people, citizen diplomacy initiative. Thanks, Ike. The Sister Cities is a wonderful and fun way to get together, gain knowledge and respect for each other. It is up to the individuals in the local communities. No government supervision is involved—it’s all about individual initiative and mutual care.

Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

FRIENDS ACROSS THE SEA

In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of The Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee a children’s art exhibit was sponsored. From several districts of the Los Angeles Unified School District a total of 219 paintings were carried to St. Petersburg for display in the historic St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy. The whole project was ably organized and managed by two of our Directors, Masha Ziering and Muriel Wood. Masha is from an artistic family in St. Petersburg who, with Masha, helped sponsor and manage the exhibit in that city, as part of thier White Nights Master Class celebration the art and cultural center of Russia.

Next year, 2011, there is planned an exchange of student’s art, with art coming from St. Petersburg for display in Los Angeles. I am pleased to be President of the LASPSCC these days, but it is the Directors who do all the work. I will post news of more projects on this website in the future.

Buy here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

Tolstoy in Long Beach

 Portrait by Ilya Repin, 1887

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy will be celebrated in October of this year, 2010, The Leo N. Tolstoy Centennial Festival will be held at California State University, Long Beach. It may seem a bit strange that a great Russian writer is celebrated in a California port city, but this event promises to be world class. On the campus of and sponsored by California State University,  Long Beach and in cooperation with the Long Beach/Sochi Sister City Committee, it has been organized by Professor Harold Schefski of CSULB.

On Friday, October 22, the focus is on the famous novel War and Peace set in the times of Napoleon’s futile invasion of Russia. On Saturday, October 23, the focus in on Tolstoy’s other famous novel, Anna Karenina. On that day, I am told, they will show one scene from the novel as interpreted by six different films form the past, including the 1935 production with Greta Garbo, and the 1948 film with Vivien Leigh.

On Sunday, October 24, the Long Beach/Sochi Sister City Committee will show the Oscar Nominee film “The Last Station.”

As a member of the Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee and long time Russophile, I can’t wait. For a complete program schedule for this great Tolstoy weekend see http://tolstoyfestival.com/

Russian Contemporary Art

 by Tamara Semenova, St. Petersburg

Masha Zeiring and with Muriel Wood, both Directors of our Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee was the team that prepared and took over 200 pieces of art from the Los Angeles Unified School District for display during the Master Class White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia this past June-July. Masha’s parents are celebrated artists in St. Petersburg and Masha has started a web page for them and to provide an expanding representation of the best in contemporary art from that artistic center of Russia. The web page is called The Art Addiction.

I think this initiative of Masha’s is going to grow into a recognized center of contemporary Russian art in the city of Los Angeles.

Children’s Art ~ Friends across the Sea

Art knows no borders. The Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee is sponsoring an exchange of children’s art between LA and St. Petersburg, Russia to celebrate the committee’s 20^th anniversary. Recently I was happy to see the exhibit of that art from the schools, grades 1-12, of central LA and I was really impressed. Over 200 paintings will go to St. Petersburg and be displayed in “Master Class,” a major arts and entertainment event during the glorious “White Nights” that city celebrates every June.

The plan is for in 2011, in addition to again LA kid’s art going to the Russian city,  that art from St. Petersburg’s children will come to LA and there will be a major banquet and event in LA to celebrate that 20^th anniversary. St. Petersburg is the cultural center of Russia and a beautiful city. The amazing advance of all the arts in Los Angeles makes this exchange a mutually enjoyable celebration.

Buy the book here  “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia”

St. Petersburg and Moscow ~ Cats and Dogs

These two cities define what most see of Russia, and they are so different, yet in some ways the same. They have forever been in contest with each other, and are today.

 Moscow is a masculine city. It is an exploding powerhouse of opportunity held together by threads of personal energy and ambition. It is a cocoon of lives stacked seven stories high, living all the happiness and sins of people anywhere – only at the extremes Russians are so capable of.  Moscow hardly sleeps. It has a muscular aggressiveness unique in Europe and traffic jams that make Los Angeles look easy. The one word that describes Moscow is power.

 St. Petersburg is a feminine city. Her historic personality is as an elegant and noble woman sitting draped with the jewels of her youth waiting for her prince to return. This “Venice of the North” with its symmetry, architecture, statuary, art museums, performing art, palaces, gardens and languid summers with endless days make it a city never to be forgotten.  St. Petersburg is not Russia; it is the historical myth of Imperial Russia.

 Moscow is a city of dogs. There are two classes. One can be seen in vagabond packs or stalking alone, scheming to survive, begging, much like the city’s underclass inhabitants. The other is the canine elite, who walk their masters, regardless of rank, in the parks each morning and evening. The disenfranchised class lurks around the apartment blocks sniffing the garbage for anything to swallow.

 St. Petersburg is a city of cats. From the streets at night, you can see their shining eyes, peering through the arches from the inner decay of “Dostoevsky‘s St. Petersburg,” the faceless blocks of communal flats. The cats hang comfortably in the dead trees, dine elegantly in the overflowing garbage, sit regally on the broken steps. For some reason, the cats always look healthy and fat.

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