Yakutia plans to open creative cluster in late 2021

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. /TASS/. The Labor Quarter project in Yakutia, which will be the biggest creative space for economic development in the Far East, will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2021, Yakutia’s Development Corporation’s Director General Afanasiy Savvin told TASS. "The Labor Quarter cluster will be open for all who work in creative industries," he said. "The project has been included in the Agency for Strategic Initiatives’ 100 Municipal Leaders accelerator, and within six months the agency’s experts have helped us to prepare the cluster’s best business model. We have been working on design and estimation papers and plan to launch the project in the fourth quarter of 2021." Cluster in the North In December, 2019, Yakutia’s government adopted a concept to develop the region’s creative economy to 2025. Thus, Yakutia was the first Russian region to adopt a document of the kind at the governmental level. According to the region’s Development Corporation, only 0.38% of Yakut non-raw-material companies export their products, and about 7% are represented in markets of other Russian regions. At the same time, the regional business experiences pressure from major federal companies and Internet platforms, which come actively to the regional market. In order to develop businesses, the Corporation said, "our companies should focus on outer markets and their products should win such a competition." This was the purpose of the project to develop the Labor Quarter creative cluster, which would comprise creative solutions, media content, design, architecture solutions. The main objective would be to make a multiplying effect on the region’s economy beyond the raw-materials sector. The project’s implementation will result in the biggest creative space in the Far East. The region’s 50 companies have inked with the Development Corporation agreements on residency in the cluster. Those companies work in film making, design, architecture, music, and additional education for children and adults. "Our biggest achievement is that we have brought together the community, which is truly devoted to the project and which offers great support. Those people see themselves in the cluster, they invest effort and time in organization of Labor Quarter," Savvin said. The cluster will be organized around a five-story building of a former meat-processing plant in Yakutsk. Thus, the project’s costs will be less, and at the same time the building and territory around it will have a new life cycle. The project plans more than 1,200 new jobs, the Development Corporation said. Creative space Labor Quarter has united projects of the Space creative platform, the House of Musicians School and Uraan musical duo. The Space creative platform is the brightest example of creative economy in Yakutia. Its residents are photo and video artists, designers, and stylists. Space offers resources for creative work, and supports creative businesses: for example, the platform offers rent of equipment and master classes from professionals. The platform’s founder Alexei Pavlov says the cluster could be a place for film making - Yakut authors have achieved great success lately. The platform will offer sufficient material resources for residents to organize a producer company. "The cluster will offer solutions for many small businesses. We face problems with agreements, with grants. They could be a part of the project. Even in the narrow direction, at the expense of the cluster they will be able to launch their projects, to produce something to compete with the Far East’s companies," Pavlov said. Music - for children Kirill Tretyakov’s House of Musicians has trained more than 1,000 musicians over two years. The school’s students are aged 10 years and more. "Kids take classes in guitar, bass guitar, piano, drums, vocal and in playing khomus (a Yakut ethnic music instrument)," Tretyakov said. "Our students organize groups, where they rehearse and play covers, write songs." "I have been playing guitar since the age of 12," he continued. "I was a member of the group, where together with my friends we played music just for ourselves. Later on, I wanted to make music my life. Last year, I organized a summer camp, called in my friends. Within three weeks, kids learned to play, though I must say some children already had playing skills. The kids organized groups, wrote and recorded songs. We have published their album. When we saw the result was positive, we organized the second season, and then established the school." In the very beginning, the school "simply promoted" rock, he said, but later on the tasks grew wider. "In addition to music lessons, kids communicated, found new friends. Once, a student, a boy lost 30 kilos as he was not happy about his image on the stage. Our students learn how to cope with the fear on stage, and they simply love music. Such creative projects in teams nowadays are most important in opposition to gadgets." The school employs about 20 people. "According to the cluster’s project, we will rent on special conditions a space, where we will write songs, and we will export works by Yakut musicians to the market. We also want to ‘pack’ our project into a franchise in Russian regions, and the Development Corporation has been helpful with this," he added. Yakut music for the world The Uraan duo in electronic music - Aital Alexeyev and Dmitry Popov - has been working on a record studio and a concert hall in Labor Quarter. The duo is five years old. The musicians have released more than ten singles and mini albums. They promote themselves in Russia and at foreign platforms, cooperate with the US and UK musical labels. Their music is a symbiosis of ethnic, Indi, electro and techno, which gives a unique atmospheric sound. As a rule, when creating tracks, the duo invites Yakut artists. Among them - well-known khomus players, masters of improvisational - toyuk - songs and throat singing. The duo makes sound design and writes soundtracks for movies and games. "We also enjoy producing various projects with photo and video. Recently, we have visited a reindeer herding camp some 700 kilometers from the city. There, we have recorded sounds, made video, and later on we will use this material in projects, devoted to this expedition. Creativity is not limited to music. In future, we want to work with actors, to organize complex production with concepts and promotions," Alexeyev said. Read more