Turbulent 2020 turned out to be fruitful not only for new challenges but also for extraordinary solutions and projects. It was during this difficult period that the first truly large-scale space for interaction between representatives of the creative industries appeared in Tomsk, a new creative cluster Penaty. Viktor Klimenko, director of the TSU Siberian Design Center, is an initiator and ideological inspirer of the project.  

In modern Russia, there is still no single institution that unites those who work in creative industries. The Siberian Design Center had a goal to establish an organization that could do that in the Tomsk region. Over the past two years, 14 startups have been launched in the Center. This is how the model of a creative cluster was tested here, in Siberia. 

From the global experience, we can see that creative industries are a tool for regional development. Therefore, the question about the purpose of establishing a creative cluster in Tomsk can be answered briefly: this is a local “point of growth”; it means money and jobs both for residents of Tomsk and the Tomsk region, and for guests of the region. 

"Penaty", quite obviously, will be able to contribute to the development of tourist potential, becoming an additional attraction and a place that guests of the city will want to visit. 

The creative cluster also provides new opportunities for the universities in terms of organizing educational and research activities.  

For creative industries to develop, it is necessary to have some kind of "place of power" that would allow creatively oriented entrepreneurs to gather, communicate, and create common projects.   

Today, the place is already living an active life, despite the depressing external conditions: joint projects of the laboratories are being implemented and developed, photo sessions take place, and products of the birch bark workshop are being shipped to Europe. 

The Editorial Board