My name is Mariya Mikhailenko, I'm an artist from Murmansk.

But you also work as a producer, don't you?

Yes, I supervise a number of projects, mainly with teenagers or young artists from
Murmansk or from the region. I'll start with the latest projects, not long ago we began
working with street art. I formed a group of artists who did easel graphics and painting,
so we started not from the graffiti artists but from the artistic community. As a result we
produced a number of curious experimental things. We started in 2019 and continued in
2020, but with some restrictions due to the world crisis, because we had hoped to spread
on to Norway, but unfortunately everything went online.

The latest project we have realized is the Art Boat at the marine terminal, the project with painted old boats. The idea had been cooking for about 5 years, because it's a port with a lot of old boats everywhere, and something had to be done about them. So, taking into account all the circumstances, we started doing this project with the help of a big team of architects who came here. The results were really interesting and I think we shall keep on working in this direction. And this project generated another one involving the teenagers of the town of Polyarniy. I'm interested in developing the local community because there's the problem of young people leaving to go to university and seldom coming back. As a result we're left with the minimum number of people who are really divided. So I'd like to bring artists from different artistic spheres together and work with the local people.