Cultural Centre makes people happy
Andrey Vladimirovich, what do you see as the main value of the Centre for JINR employees, including foreign ones?
- The Cultural Centre is part of the social infrastructure of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research that was established in parallel with the Institute and its scientific laboratories. And this was a wise decision, because social infrastructure is an integral part of the life of any educated, cultural person, especially a creative person, who of course, JINR researchers belong to.
Regardless of nationality, Russian citizens or citizens of other states, these are inquisitive people with a broad outlook, who it is important for, in addition to their main scientific profession, to have interesting leisure and to be surrounded by people that share their values, views, culture.
Therefore, the founding fathers of the Institute, of course, first of all built libraries, the Cultural Centre, sports facilities, so that all employees, mostly visitors, had the opportunity to relax after work, to meet friends, to get acquainted, to exchange opinions.
From the very first days, after-work activities and studios appeared in the Cultural Centre, where workers came to engage in creativity. Leading teams of the Soviet Union, today, Russia and JINR Member states came and are coming here. They represent their work and the staff of the Institute can join it and live a full-fledged cultural life, despite the fact that they are not in the capital.
How do you evaluate the success of an event other than at the box office? Perhaps, there are some metrics: engagement, loyalty, long-term effects, cross-cultural interaction.
- Here, probably, talking in general about the value of the Cultural Centre, we can say that any success is evaluated primarily by the need and importance for the staff of the Institute. After all, the Cultural Centre is part of JINR and works for employees, for their inspiration, development of creative abilities, for attending cultural events with family members.
If this or that event found a response, gave rise to a lot of emotions, discussions, experiences (positive, sometimes, maybe negative), but did not leave indifferent - this is the main thing. The event attracted attention, became the subject of discussion, there was a desire to repeat, to see or to learn something additionally - this is probably the very success that shows that it is precisely such events that are required by our public, our erudite, thinking employees.
How do you support the motivation and professional development of the employees of the Centre?
- If we keep reasoning over the role of the Cultural Centre, then the building will not make anyone happy. It is people who make visitors happy. These are those who come with creative programmes: actors, musicians, artists. And of course, the employees of the Cultural Centre with their service - after all, it is they who create the very atmosphere of creativity where the leading artists want to come, where they will be greeted at home, where they can present their skills. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, if we talk about studios functioning on the basis of the Cultural Centre, then the great merit of the workers is to provide conditions for revealing the talents of the Institute's employees, their family members, so that they can dance, sing, play, draw. It is important to create and to maintain an atmosphere of benevolence, tolerance, the importance of each JINR employee that came to the temple of culture. The employees of the Cultural Centre should not only work out their salaries, but serve high art, burn with their work, love it as part of their lives. Only such people can work in the Cultural Centre and such, in fact, work. I am very grateful that they are worried about every moment of the event, they act with full dedication.
What are your primary tasks for the team of the Cultural Centre?
- We have a triple anniversary this year: the Institute, the city and the Cultural Centre. And it has already been remembered for very large, bright events. This, of course, is a solemn meeting in honor of the anniversary of the Institute, City Day, Taganka's return to the Dubna stage. And those events that we are waiting for in the near future or have passed recently, I am sure, will always be remembered in the history of the Cultural Centre. Vladimir Spivakov Festival, the concert of Japanese drummers, birthday of MLIT, congress on radiobiology, a large conference on physics. This year, we have a whole series of large, major projects. And it's joyful, it's nice that the Cultural Centre is again in the spotlight, it still serves as a gathering point for all people interested and loving culture. And what heights to strive for? Of course, to increase and to increase the number of such projects, to work out not only today, but also to come up with projects "for tomorrow," so that next year is no less interesting, no less eventful.
If you briefly describe the Cultural Centre yesterday, today, tomorrow, what is the most important thing you would highlight?
- The Cultural Centre is the main cultural centre of our Institute and Dubna. It is important today and tomorrow not to forget those traditions, those cultural relations that were developed in previous years. It is important to restore them, to build them up. And of course, to start new ones so that our followers already refer to our experience and can attract new people. We should not be a small-town Cultural Centre, interesting only for the local community. We should be an important cultural centre, interesting for all the Member States of the Institute, for all scientists that come to us from all over the world and of course, for all connoisseurs-lovers of the culture of our country.
Continue the phrase, please - I love our "Mir" because...
- To put it briefly - because it is magical. And if it is deployed - because it employs a team of like-minded people who are dedicated to their work, loving and moving the culture of our Institute.
Constellation of concerned people
Comprehensive position - Director. My work begins where, it would seem, nothing has been created yet, but there are already thoughts, plans, scenarios and "visible light" in the distance and this path to it is only worth paving. And it is important to constantly see the whole "Mir" and represent it in development.
Our audience is not an "average spectator" but a whole spectrum: adults, children and adolescents, the elderly, foreigners, guests of the city. And for each group, we have our own language, our own presentation, our own depth. Our task is to clearly and competently predict what exactly each spectator should feel and how to convey this emotion to him or her. It is at the junction of different audiences that the most valuable thing is born - the feeling that the Cultural Centre “Mir” is a place for everyone.
The emotional heart of the profession
The essence of the work of our whole team is to make people happy. That’s what our Head A.V. Tamonov always tells us and we adhere to this postulate. Not abstractly, but very specifically: so that the child leaves the Cultural Centre with shining eyes and inspired by something new, so that the adult feels that he was heard, touched his soul, so that the guest from another country understands – here, he or she is welcome and they will be friendly with him or her.
But these "happy moments" do not happen by themselves. It is necessary to conduct many negotiations with the organizers of concerts and performances every day, to call up with artists, to discuss current issues with the heads of creative studios, to analyze artistic riders with technical services and of course, to communicate with each employee of the Cultural Centre. Communication is the main tool here and mastering it perfectly is one of the keys to the success of all activities.
It is important to competently set tasks and to hear what is happening, to suggest how best to do, to help to find a solution. At the same time, I consider it right to be professionally immersed in everything, to understand the work of everyone: how the rehearsal works, what must be taken into account in the script, to verify protocol moments, to control how the scene is mounted, how the advertising campaign is carried out... Only when you really know how it is done, you can control the process and provide for further steps.
One working day
Firstly, it is endless and secondly, it is different every time, always unpredictable. It is ideal when the working day begins in the office with a scheduling a meeting and ends with a full house and a standing ovation of a happy audience. But before that, it is necessary to do a whole chain of things and so on for each event.
Coordination of people and creative processes is a whole art. Rehearsals, technical services, artists - all need to be brought into a single story. An event can unite dozens of people and each of them is important. Any live programme has its own drama. The artist is late, the technique failed, the guest was delayed on the way and my day is largely a willingness to quickly come up with a plan B and sometimes, a plan C. Calm and prudence in these situations is the very skill that has been developed for years. And it sets the tone for the whole team: if the leader is assembled, the team will also gather.
“Invisible" stages
So, it turns out that the key moments of each event are hidden from the public. Rehearsal, scene editing, light and sound tuning - what the audience takes for granted are hours of tuning, checking and alterations. Behind each perfect shot on stage is the complex and well‑coordinated work of the team. Our task is to simultaneously take into account everything - from the fire check of the readiness of the hall to the logistics of audience flows, seating and wardrobe. A "paper" story, including contracts, letters, approvals is the foundation on which the stage stands. Sometimes, it seems that there are more papers than creativity, but without them, any of the most inspired art will be only in fantasies.
Work culture and atmosphere in the team
It is important to build a culture where work "behind the scenes" is equivalent to creative. We have no important and unimportant people - there are people who do different parts of the same whole.
To lead a team smoothly, you need to understand everyone's motivation, notice the tension in the team, take into account character traits and even unobvious stress triggers. You have to literally "translate" between all professional languages, read fatigue or uncertainty, build trust and look for compromises, manage stress, especially at peak times, maintaining an emotional climate.
Therefore, an important and everyday part of my work is the creation of a comfortable atmosphere in the team. This is perhaps what is least talked about but nothing works without it. A comfortable atmosphere is about empathy, about the ability to be both a mentor and support. To find a balance, how to prompt, but not to press, to control and at the same time, to let the person manifest. Art is not born of orders; it is born of trust and co‑creation.
The same backstage
My job is to gather around the general idea of everyone who sometimes makes the impossible possible. Talking about the backstage, I most of all want the audience to know: behind each creative event is the work of dozens of people.
We introduced the tradition of showing the audience behind the scenes: photo reports and short videos about how the event is created, what happens an hour before the curtain opens, how the sound is tuned, how the artist worries before going on stage. For people, this is a way to see live work behind the "magic".
In fact, in the final of each event, our team seems to bow, even if there are only artists on stage. I would like the whole hall to understand that in front of it there is a single constellation of “Mir” employees.
Universe of worlds
Figuratively speaking, the Cultural Centre is the place where a new universe is born with each event. Creating about a hundred events a year, we create a hundred different worlds: somewhere an orchestra sounds, somewhere children first go on stage, somewhere spectators and artists find themselves together on the same set, blurring the border between the stage and the audience.
Creative studios here grow like branches of a large tree: every year, there are more and more of them. In the Cultural Centre, art enters space and becomes part of the environment. Art objects "Historical pen", mosaic "Synthesis of arts", "Autograph of Vysotsky" are points of attraction, small stories that you want to consider, to touch, to recognize. New dimensions appear, for example, the area "Smart world": lectures and meetings, where science and culture speak the same language. Special experiments are made, say, the "Hall on stage" format. Our Cultural Centre develops as a multi-format platform where traditions meet with experiments and the audience becomes not just an observer, but a participant in the cultural process.
I love our "Mir" because...
-... it has a special aura and because it's mutual!
Eleonora YAMALEEVA, Photos by Daria KONOVA and from JINR archive