Svobodny saw artwork on city facades by the Art Formula unveiled

26 october 2021

Amur Oblast’s city of Svobodny became home to the grand opening of two murals (large-scale pieces of graffiti on buildings’ facades) created on the basis of sketches made by the winners of the Art Formula project. The project was launched in the city in 2021 with the support of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program.

The opening ceremony and presentation of awards to the contest’s finalists took place at 43 Zeiskaya Street where one of the mural is located. The sketch for the mural was created by Anna Furman, a local resident. The second graffiti piece, sketched by Ekaterina Sedunova, can be seen on the facade of an apartment building at 101 Lenin Street. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the city’s administration, SIBUR and the contest’s organizers.

Taras Myalo, the region’s Acting Head, addressed the project’s participants and local residents with a welcoming speech.

It's wonderful that such a great initiative from SIBUR is being implemented in our city. Many thanks to Anna Furman, our winner, for the opportunity to feel happy and enjoy this beautiful art piece. We want to have more of such art objects! Let's make our city better and more beautiful, Taras Myalo said.

Gleb Fedotov, Head of Department of Government Relations and Socio-Economic Projects at LLC Amursky GCC, praised the winners and offered his assessment of their contribution to the beautification of the city.

The drawing turned out to be very well executed, something that is especially evident at this grand scale. I think this may have laid the foundation for further changes. The city itself is changing and so is its ambience, Gleb Fedotov noted.

The contest of sketches was open not only to adult participants but also to children who got inspired by the example of their parents.

I wanted to inspire my child to participate in the contest, so I decided to lead by example, Ekaterina Sedunova, a contest winner, commented. And this worked out really well! As a result, my son Ruslan Bekenev won the first prize, and I did fare quite well, too. When I was drawing my sketch titled The Nature of Art, I was inspired by a woman's view of the wildlife; that was where I drew my inspiration for my art.

All contest participants received diplomas and valuable prizes: iPads, graphic drawing tablets, professional drawing sets.

The Art Formula is a street art project organized with the support of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. The project’s ambition is to change and improve urban environments with the help of contemporary art and street art, as well as to develop active local communities interested in creative self-fulfillment and in improving their native cities.

The Art Formula has already been successfully implemented in three cities of the company's presence: Blagoveshchensk (Republic of Bashkortostan), Svobodny, and Tobolsk. As part of the project, street art sketching contests are held among cities' residents. The winning works of art are subsequently transferred to the facades of cities’ buildings by professional artists with participation of the authors of the original drawings. In addition, cities host concurrent master classes and lectures by urbanists and artists for everyone who might wish to attend them.