In Irkutsk, the Week of Informal Education ended, the first part of the large project Irkutsk a learning city, which brought together hundreds of partners, teachers and volunteers. Residents attended free master classes, lectures, tours and creative classes, learned to sing, draw, embroider, make gifts by hand, and learned more about the citys history, Lake Baikal and even the future of the printed book. The project showed that learning in Irkutsk can be easy, interesting and in the most unexpected formats.

“Week of Nonformal Education” is the first part of the large-scale city project “Irkutsk – a Learning City,” conceived and implemented by the Public Relations Department of the Irkutsk city administration with the help of 200 partners, teachers, and sponsors. The essence of “Week of Nonformal Education” is to organize free master classes for Irkutsk residents at all available scientific, creative, and sports venues. Starting on March 1, volunteer teachers taught Irkutsk residents to sing, dance, draw, embroider, braid hair, mold flowers from dough, make birch-bark magnets, make soap, and much more.
Master classes on making gifts with one’s own hands were especially useful for men and teenagers – after all, on the eve of March 8, each of them could learn completely free of charge how to make a pleasant surprise for their mother, sister, grandmother, or beloved. The excursion program was also rich. On weekends, at the Puppet Theater stop, trolleybuses No. 3 and No. 7 awaited everyone, where volunteer guides told the history of the city’s memorable places. The pupils of Orphanage No. 2 visited a unique mineralogical museum located at Irkutsk State Technical University.
On March 1, fourth-grade students from Gymnasium No. 3 took part in a lecture about Lake Baikal at Library No. 5. The initiative to hold such a lecture belonged to Tatyana Pavlovskaya, head of the “Aborigines” tourist and ecological club. There, the schoolchildren were also taught how to make original greeting cards and roses from puff pastry with their own hands, and women and grandmothers were shown how to knit stoles. On March 2, anyone could take a free lesson in tying mountaineering knots at the Gagarin House of Culture, and at Library No. 8 there was a master class by Lyudmila Makotrina on ribbon embroidery. Due to the large number of people who wanted to learn embroidery, a special group was created, which will take a full course in ribbon embroidery at the Gagarin House of Culture.
On March 3, a lecture-discussion by Svetlana Mikheeva dedicated to the prospects of printed books took place at the bookstore in the “Irkutsk Sloboda” quarter. The lecture attracted the attention of university teachers, publishers, writers, and city school students. In the opinion of young people, electronic text has replaced the paper book. Ninth-grader Masha Kapotova from School No. 11 is sure that modern children prefer the electronic version to paper. The participants in the discussion concluded that bookstores can become public venues where ideas and ideologies are discussed. Perhaps this is the only way to preserve readers’ interest in the paper book. On the same day, everyone who wished was taken on tours behind the scenes of the temple of art at the Ohlopkov Drama Theater.
The largest number of educational venues opened in the Sverdlovsk District. Literary clubs at city libraries gathered almost 600 people, and scientists from Akademgorodok once again argued about the importance of physicists and lyricists. Yoga classes and figure skating at the Ice People sports complex were popular. But the most memorable master class took place at the House of Cinema – here, paintings were created with light, and in complete darkness. And today, the closing of “Week of Nonformal Education” took place in the hall of the Chaika cinema.
“Since the first educational institution opened in Irkutsk in 1725, the desire for knowledge has always been an integral part of the special Irkutsk mentality,” says the project organizer, Deputy Head of the Department for Media and Public Relations of the Irkutsk city administration Alexey Gordin,. “Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the project ‘Irkutsk – a Learning City’ enjoys such success among Irkutsk residents. Interesting, inquisitive, and creative people are the most important resource of our city. We know: learning is easy and interesting. So – until we meet again at the events of the project ‘Irkutsk – a Learning City’!
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration