Abstract:

The possibilities of creating an environment conducive to the development of creativity and creative productivity of students mastering professions related to art have been the subject of research and experiments for several years at the Faculty of Arts of St. Petersburg State University. The result of the work was the idea of creating an interdisciplinary international Art Residence, to stimulate creative interaction and exchange between educational programs of universities of different countries in the field of art, as well as to involve more art workers in the circle of communication of students and teachers of the St. Petersburg University, to involve local residents and virtual audience into creative processes, achieving a synergistic effect from a combination of free and educational creative processes.

The home for the residence will be the former recreation property of St. Petersburg State University – Dacha Benois in Peterhof, consisting of four historic Art Nouveau villas and a picturesque park on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, which has been abandoned for over 30 years after Perestroika.

The restoration of the complex in the "behind the glass" format was conceived to achieve the effect of a large-scale educational and enlightenment project in the field of cultural and natural heritage preservation, and sustainable development goals achievement, as part of the fundraising strategy required for the project. The need to restore this complex after a long desolation and the search for a new purpose for its use as an independent topic of research.

As a result of analyzing and comparing the needs of the first and second studies, a comprehensive model of the Art Residence was formed, which united the two projects. Within the framework of the study, 4 graduation qualification works, which have consistently developed the concept, and more than 100 course-projects, with proposals for the various improvement elements, have already been completed.

Certain tasks of the study became the topics of the course on marketing and management of cultural projects for the Environmental design students at St. Petersburg State University, and the conduct of plain air, measurement, and research practices is gradually becoming a program of inter-university and interdisciplinary cooperation.

The pandemic slowed down this process, however, it helped to realize the importance of engaging an external audience via the Internet, which will become a special direction of the project's development, in the format of a virtual art residence, that has no analogs, which will combine independent strategies of interaction between the professional art community, students and the online audience with the offline activities of the Art Residence at the cite, and the processes of the Renaissance of its unique habitat, as a source of inspiration.

Keywords:

Creative environment, education, art residence, architectural heritage revival, cultural projects, creative processes.