Books in the City: How SIBUR Develops Book Culture in the Regions
The "Books in the City" project is a touring programme of Russia's flagship book festival, "Krasnaya Ploshchad" (Red Square), implemented with SIBUR's support in Tobolsk. It is more than just a fair; it is a comprehensive cultural event that transforms the city into a capital of contemporary literature for 10 days, creating a space for family leisure, professional dialogue, and inspiration.
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Our Mission
Our Mission is to turn the city into a literary capital, leveraging the power of the book as a tool for development, creating a new environment for family leisure, and providing an impulse for the professional community, thereby laying the foundation for an intellectual future.
Strategic Objectives:
Introducing residents, especially children, to the best examples of contemporary, including visual, literature.
Enhancing qualifications and facilitating the exchange of experience for local specialists: librarians, teachers, and museum professionals.
Establishing books and reading in the city's public space as a basis for intellectual recreation and creativity.
The festival united two key audiences, offering a rich programme for each.
The city's first mobile children's bookstore operated, where the selection of the
world's best publications was completely updated every weekend.
An extensive programme was held, encompassing various formats: tours, quests, exhibitions,
master classes, curator-led tours, and even hot-air balloon rides.
A separate programme of diverse events was organised: lectures and master classes on visual
literature and book culture for teachers, librarians, and museum staff.
The interregional programm "Kazan – Tobolsk: The Route Has Been Established" took place to
exchange urban development experience.
SIBUR's Contribution:
Conduit of the Highest Standards
The company provided Tobolsk residents with access to the quality, diversity, and expertise of the country's flagship book festival, raising the bar for cultural events in the city.
Catalyst for Long-Term Impact
The project was aimed not at a one-off effect but at systemic development: from forming a new generation of readers (through the children's programme) to increasing the professionalism of the local cultural community.
The "Books in the City" festival is an investment in the intellectual capital and quality of the cultural environment in Tobolsk. The project laid new traditions, created professional connections, and proved that contemporary book culture can and should develop dynamically beyond the capital cities.