Discover St. Petersburg’s Street Art
Shaping Cultural Experiences
Travel has been an integral part of my life since I was a young child. I grew up in a multicultural, bilingual home in the Netherlands with a Polish mother and a Dutch father. My
Update & BBC News Link
A brief update: One interview video will be uploaded tomorrow evening. I believe the BBC News One-Minute World News provides well-balanced reporting of news, hence why I wanted to share it. Top stories on May
From Nigeria to Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VNkCazT_T4&feature=youtu.be
When you first meet Oluwagbeminiyi Osidipe, you encounter a very vibrant, friendly, and unique personality. Oluwagbeminiyi or Niyi – as she shortened her name for simplicity – was named by her mother, who had a “very personal experience” when she had her, Niyi explained. Niyi is a Yoruba Nigerian transplant who arrived in the U.S. in 2006. As one of the most densely populated (West) African countries, Nigeria derives its name from the river that spans its land. To the South, it borders the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean. Originally colonized by the British, Nigeria gained independence in 1960. Its main ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, who speak English and their own respective languages, while major religions include Islam, Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Niyi shares her story, her views on politics, cultural differences she’s embraced with humor, and what we can learn from each other by expressing curiosity. Her message is simple: travel enriches us through its exposure to new cultures, and enables us to grow.
Mark Twain on Travel
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” (American author Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad).
Have you had the opportunity to travel (extensively, within your country, or even once abroad)? Can you relate to Twain’s sentiments? How does travel enrich us?
Pleasing The Taste Palate
Food has the wonderful quality of uniting us no matter where we are. There is nothing partisan or narrow-minded about food. It simply invites us to indulge, create recipes, and share with others. Two of my favorite Polish dishes (included in collage) are pierogies and barszcz czerwony – a beetroot soup – served on Christmas Eve in Poland. How does food bring us together? What are some of your favorite dishes and why? Can food trigger memories?
Stereotypes: Truth or Fiction?
DEFINING STEREOTYPES: “An idea or statement about all of the members of a group or all the instances of a situation.” (Merriam-Webster). Stereotypes enable bias and preconceived notions to perpetuate, but can also reveal valid
Annual Human Rights Report
“The world changed immeasurably over the course of 2011. Across the Middle East, North Africa, and far beyond, citizens stood up to demand respect for human dignity, more promising economic opportunities, greater political liberties, and
Euro Crisis & Emerging Stereotypes
Brief Crisis Breakdown Since the onset of the global financial crisis, or Great Recession, in 2007, the Eurozone has feared impending growing global debt levels, as well as sovereign debt within European countries themselves. In
Remembering Tiananmen
Today marks the 23rd anniversary of Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China. Inflation, a lack of career prospects, the fall of Eastern European communism, and political corruption, are all said to have fueled anger
Coffee's Uniting Power
A cup of coffee can bridge cultural gaps. At least, that’s what Gizem Salgicil White, founder of Turkayfe.org, believes. Her organization aims to create awareness of Turkish culture, particularly within America. Gizem is a Turkish native,
Today’s CultureTrav post is by Fabio Morelli
Recently, I had the opportunity to take some days off and visit St. Petersburg for the first time (it was
also my first time in Russia)!
Why did I decide to visit this city? The many good things I have heard about street art! Over the years, street art has become an incredibly important artistic and cultural movement and I’m honestly really passionate about that. It’s nothing compared to the graffiti you sprayed when you were 15 years old: street art is way more in-depth, it hides several meanings, it’s made for several reasons, especially social or political ones. Renowned artists have made the public go crazy with their creative works.
However, street art remains very controversial: who owns the rights over the artworks? Why do so many people still consider it illegal? Even though there are times when the artists don’t have the permission to tag the walls, it’s also true that street art is a visual enhancement of the environment.
St. Petersburg: a new home for street art
More and more cities are now boasting many of their districts covered with murals as well as their street
art museums: for example, also the city where I’m currently living, Warsaw, has one of the best street art district in Europe as well as Brussels. Recently I have also heard that also St. Petersburg. Russia’s second-largest city after Moscow has something great to show in this matter.
From its birth, St. Petersburg was intended to show the splendor and the history of Russia: it’s a treasure trove of culture and art with hundreds of museums, grand palaces, beautiful squares and amazing canals. In this dualistic context, the Street Art Museum and its strong identity are starting to make their way into the artistic mainstream. Located on the active Laminated Plastics factory in the East of the city, the museum is a jewel far from the usual places tourists go to.
When I travel, I usually prefer to rent a flat, but this time I decided to make a little exception and stay at the Radisson Royal Hotel, St. Petersburg. This was also because surfing on the web I have discovered that they took part actively in the topic of the street art creating and have an interactive map of street art in St. Petersburg in collaboration with the St. Petersburg Street Art Museum and with the Technical Director of the museum, Alexander Muschenko who they interviewed.
In St. Petersburg, street art is becoming more important by the day. However, all the tourists know that it’s extremely hard to pinpoint the locations of these beautiful pieces of contemporary art. From time to time, street art enthusiasts organize occasional excursions to visit the key street art locations, but they’re not official tours.
So, this begs the question: in such a high-profile city, how is street art made accessible to the masses? I believe that this interactive map is really created to make this art form easily reachable for
everyone. A great work that stands out from all others is the street art version of one of the most famous oil painting of art history, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, located in the New Kudrovo neighbourhood: a perfect example of urban integration where contemporary architecture blends perfectly with the incredible colours of this edgy art form.
My experience in St. Petersburg was great, and if you get the chance to meet some locals that
will guide you through the streets, you may enjoy your trip even more!
Hi! I'm the founder of Culture With Travel and #CultureTrav. Please chat with us on social media and contribute in the comments! Follow @Nicolette_O
