The seventh St Petersburg International Cultural Forum in Russia has concluded with the participation of 35 foreign delegations.
Qatar was the guest of honour at this forum for the first time. It is within the context of the Qatar-Russia 2018 Year of Culture during which many joint events will be held throughout the year in order to strengthen the future partnership and ties between the two countries and their peoples.
Several activities were held on the final day including a panel discussion on ‘future of libraries and libraries of the future’, during which Qatar National Library executive director Dr Sohair Wastawy stressed that the role of traditional libraries will continue despite the progress of digital libraries, noting that the task of libraries and their presence in societies is to gather people to learn whether through the Internet or the place, as the existence of a particular place, facilitates the process of 
collective learning.
During a discussion session at the St Petersburg State University, musician Dana Alfardan spoke about how the Qatari marine art influenced her music and its 
interaction with classical music.
Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) chief executive officer Aysha al-Mudahka spoke about entrepreneurship in cultural companies and how individuals and artists can establish successful partnerships.
Also, Qatar Contemporary: Art and Photography exhibition attracted many visitors. The exhibition 
continues until December 10.
The exhibition, which is the largest of its kind from Qatar to be hosted in Russia, is divided into two parts. Building a Vision: Photography from Qatar features over 250 photographs from 60 photographers of 28 different nationalities living in Qatar. It is curated by Dr Giles Hudson and Sheikha Maryam al-Thani. It showcases 200 photographs from Qatar Museums historical collections, exhibited for the first time. 
States of Transformation, the second part of the exhibition, is curated by Dr Bahaa Abudaya. It features 100 contemporary works from 46 artists of different nationalities. 
The forum was inaugurated on November 15 by Russian Deputy Prime Minister for Sport, Tourism, and Cultural Development Olga Golodets and Qatar’s Minister of Culture and Sports HE Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, who chaired Qatar’s 
delegation to the forum.
The St Petersburg International Cultural Forum aims to discuss ways to support cultural co-operation between countries and their peoples around the world as well as to promote knowledge exchange on cultural and artistic issues through holding seminars, lectures, roundtables, and theatre, film and musical shows in addition to supporting and 
developing youth initiatives.



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