OPENING CEREMONY
The opening ceremony was organised by Perm and took place on 10 November.
It was officiated by the mayors of Perm and Oxford, Dmitry Samoylov and Craig Simmons.
‘ME AND MY PERM’
Short films were made by young people in Perm, showing us places of interest.
Watch them on our video page here.
JOURNALISM CONFERENCE
‘Getting The Story Right: A Series of Oxford-Perm Lectures on the Basics of Modern Journalism' was held online
over three days. It was a successful follow-up to the first conference held in Perm in 2018.
It was chaired by Paddy Coulter, Director of the Oxford Global Media consultancy.
The lecturers were Luke Sproule, Anastasia Valeeva and Katya Kravchencko
The panel and organisers in Perm were Vadim Skovorodin and Ivan Peschichev.
Support in organising the event was given by Perm State University, the Oxford Perm Association, the British consulate in Ekaterinburg and
Tatiana Grigorieva, International Officer for Perm City Administration.
25 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP
A balloon is released to celebrate
the friendship between Oxford and Perm.
Watch them on our video page here.
A PRESENT FROM PERM TO OXFORD
Embroidered quilts or wall-hangings were exchanged between Perm and Oxford. The idea of the exchange goes back to 1943 when women in Coventry, wanting to support the citizens of Stalingrad, embroidered а tablecloth with 830 names sewn in which they presented to the city after the war. They later became twin cities. In 2008 Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) sent Coventry a hand sewn tablecloth as a sign of their friendship.
The quilt from Perm sewn by two fabric artists in a textile workshop shows an Ox, the symbol of Oxford and a bear, the symbol of Perm.
A PRESENT FROM OXFORD TO PERM
Embroidered quilts or wall-hangings were exchanged between Perm and Oxford. The idea of the exchange goes back to 1943 when women in Coventry, wanting to support the citizens of Stalingrad, embroidered а tablecloth with 830 names sewn in which they presented to the city after the war. They later became twin cities. In 2008 Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) sent Coventry a hand sewn tablecloth as a sign of their friendship.
The making of the Oxford quilt was organised by May Wylie and a team of volunteers. It shows several aspects of Oxford life. Read May Wylie's article about the making of the quilt in the January 2021 newsletter here.
DANCE EXCHANGE
The Perm Youth Palace organised a video master class dance exchange.
Young dancers in Perm learnt Morris Dancing.
The challenge of learning Ural dance will be taken up by a group in Oxford at a later date.
Watch them on our video page here.
OPEN SCREEN, OXFORD
Film Oxford held an Open Screen event.
Evie Sherry-Starmer, who went to Perm in 2005 and was involved in the film ‘Dancing the Difference’, gave a short introductory talk about the dance project between Perm and Oxford and showed an extract from the film.
A selection of short films were shown from Perm – ‘Me and My Perm’ that give an insight into people’s lives in Perm.
Watch 'Dancing the Difference' here
Pt 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPA-AtRfOus
Pt 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuHq83drU3Y&t=4s
Pt 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uXYAWsZQk&t=17s
Watch the ‘Me and My Perm’ films
on our video page here.
For more information about Open Screen
https://www.filmoxford.org/open-screen/
ANNUAL PERM PARTY
The party took place on 13 November with members of the Oxford Perm Association and teachers from Perm who had visited Oxford. People chatted, drank and ate, took part in Karen’s quiz about Oxford and watched the short videos made for the anniversary. The evening was rounded off with communal singing organised by Voirrey Carr.
TALK ON BEREZNIKI
Federico Varese gave a talk on 'Berezniki - the development of a Soviet City'.
Varese is an author and Professor of Criminology at Oxford University.
Last year he spent a couple of months in Berezniki in Perm, studying the town and working in the archives.
In his fascinating talk, he discussed the planning and building of this Soviet City and the ideology behind it, illustrating the talk with photos from the Berezniki archives.
OXFORD INTERNATIONAL LINKS ONLINE PHOTO EXHIBITION
This exhibition included exhibits
from Perm photographers.
CLOSING CEREMONY
The ceremony to end the official celebrations took place in the Pushkin Library of the Perm Youth Palace.
Ekaterina Bokova, Director of the Youth Palace, and Tatiana Grigorieva, International Officer for Perm City Administration, hosted the event.
Karen Hewitt, Angela Charlton and Paddy Coulter spoke from Oxford and Richard Dewell, British Consul General, spoke from Ekaterinburg. Experiences and memories from the festivities were shared.
Perm and Oxford exchanged quilts they had made, symbolic gifts of friendship.
A video of the history of the twinning movement was shown as were the short videos made for the twinning celebrations. Artwork from Perm schoolchildren was displayed and the essay prizes announced.
Tatiana Guliaeva interpreted.
LANCASHIRE HOT POT IN PERM
PIROGI DEMONSTRATION FROM PERM
Cooks in the Perm Youth Palace demonstrate how to cook pirogi for people in Oxford to try.
Watch them on our video page here.
GLOBAL DANCE FILM PROJECT
Dancin’ Oxford, Oxford's Christmas Light Festival and the City Council’s twinning officer
joined forces to create and commission the Global Dance Film project.
3 Dance groups from Perm joined a total of 19 dance groups from Oxford, Ramallah, and Grenoble
in a 4 minute film that captures the vibrancy and diversity of dance in Oxford and our twin cities.
Follow this link to watch the film