© Sergei Leontiev

The Strelka Institute’s yearly activities are divided into three parts.

Research at the Institute is organized into six-month cycles which run from January to July. Prior to the start of each cycle, all new researchers participate in a two-month warm-up conference that introduces the year’s research themes and provides a set of research and production methodologies. The atmosphere throughout the warm-up period is rigorous and social. Researchers are encouraged to get to know one another and to explore Moscow. The conference is structured by a programme of lectures, workshops, and salons, exposing the participants to international educational and professional thinking. It culminates in an eight-day field trip where the researchers apply the previous weeks’ lessons to create original expressions on one of the year’s research subjects.

Following a winter recess, researchers are distributed into the five research themes, based on their stated preferences and an evaluation by the themes’ instructors. Over the course of the next six months, researchers explore the themes through academic and field investigations, interviews, consultations and analysis. Throughout this process, the work is guided by a theme Initiator who provides the overall framework for the research, a project Supervisor who oversees its execution, and local Mentors who help translate the work into a media product. The generation of research and application occur in tandem, each reinforcing and inspiring the other.

On three occasions during the six-month research cycle, all five themes are reviewed by the Educational Committee of Strelka’s Board of Initiators. During these sessions research teams must present and defend their work. At the end of the term, a final review is held after which the teams make improvements to their work in order to prepare it for dissemination through the Russian media. Strelka will release the final products of the research themes over the course of its summer programme.

From the 18^th of May till the 28^th of September, 2012, Strelka Institute will for the third time host its open programme Summer at Strelka.

Summer at Strelka is a series of educational and cultural events in which everybody can take part. For three and a half months, numerous lectures, conferences, seminars and master classes devoted to the future of media, design, architecture and urbanism will take place at Strelka. In the summers of 2010 and 2011, the institute welcomed, among many others, the director of the London Museum Deyan Sudzhich, the architects Alejandro Aravena, Kazuyo Sejima, and Winy Maas, the designers Thomas Heatherwick and Jurgen Bey, and many others. Some of the seminars and discussions were prepared in collaboration with the Bartlette Architecture School (University College London), London's Royal College of Art, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In addition to educational activities, the summer of 2012 will bring film screenings, theatre performances, weekend fairs, and concerts to Strelka’s courtyard. Last summer, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Midnight Juggernauts and many others performed at Strelka; the Praktika theatre did two performances, and the Lambada flea market and LavkaLavka’s farmers market set up shop.

More detailed information on the next Summer at Strelka will appear on our website in February 2012. Video recordings of lectures and discussions of previous summers can be found here.

We are open to cooperation and welcome event proposals for next summer. Please send your ideas of lectures, workshops and other events to the programme director Katya Girshina at more@strelkainstitute.com.

In the academic year of 2010-2011, the first 33 students worked on research projects within the bounds of one of five themes: Preservation, Energy, Thinning, Design, and Public Space. The process was curated by 15 tutors and resulted in research products of various formats, ranging from a documentary to a performance. In late June 2011, the research projects were presented to the public. 

Strelka’s president Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper explains the essence of education at the institute: 

«I think that the main objective of a year at Strelka Institute is to take on tasks that are so significant, complicated and ambitious that you can hardly come across them in real life. However, when finally you find a solution to this or that absolute problem, you can then apply it to easier, more down-to-earth, more commercial problems. This is what education at Strelka is based on».

In 2011, the following people graduated from Strelka Institute:

Alena Lanina, Anastasia Albokrinova, Anastasia Chernyshova, Andrei Goncharov, Anna Butenko, Anna Shevchenko, Anna Trapkova, Anton Ivanov, Daria Nuzhnaya, Daria Paramonova, Daria Syuzeva, Denis Leontiev, Evgenia Nedosekina, Gleb Vitkov, Ivan Kuryachiy, Ivan Solomin, Jezi Stankevich, Karina Bunyatova, Kuba Snopek, Maria Gulieva, Merve Yucel, Minkoo Kang, Naina Gupta, Natalia Zaychenko, Oleg Semakin, Olga Khokhlova, Pavel Geichenko, Sergey Shoshin, Shi Yang, Tamara Muradova, Victoria Kudryavtseva, Xenia Makarova, Yefim Freidine. 

© Sergei Leontiev

Bar Strelka is a project of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. It aims to be an example of a comfortable urban space, creating a platform for informal socializing.

The guests are offered a wide range of beverages and an international menu created by the chefs Nathan Dallimore and Natalie Horsting. At weekends, one can listen to DJs or an antique J. Becker piano. In summertime, there is a rooftop terrace with a unique view of the Moscow River and Christ the Savior Cathedral.

All the bar’s profits go to support the Strelka Institute.

From Monday till Friday the bar is open from 9 a.m, at weekends—from 12 p.m. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays we close at midnight, while on Fridays and Saturdays the parties go on until 5 a.m. the next day.