The Calvert Journal is a daily briefing on the culture and creativity of modern Russia.
From art and film to architecture and design, avant-garde Russian culture has helped shape our view of modern life. But as a consequence of its difficult politics and history, contemporary Russia still remains unfamiliar territory to many.
Today, thanks to a rising generation of young artistic talent, Russia is in the midst of tremendous change. This is the inspiration for The Calvert Journal, a guide to creative Russia. The Journal delivers a daily briefing on art, design, film, architecture and related cultural areas, through a mix of reportage, interviews, photography and design. From our base in London, we detail the story of Russia’s contemporary culture via a network of writers and contributors stationed across its many regions and time zones.
The Calvert Journal is a project of Calvert 22 Foundation. Further development, currently in planning, involves widening the scope of the Journal beyond Russia to cover the broader region of Eastern Europe.
Editor-in-Chief
Ekow Eshun
Deputy Editor
Igor Zinatulin
Features Editor
Maryam Omidi
Comment Editor
Jamie Rann
Visual Content Editor
Gaétan Nivon
Online Editor
Samuel Crews
Commissioning Editor
Anastasiia Fedorova
Editorial Assistant
Giulia Mangione
Contact the editorial team here
The Calvert Journal is a project of The Calvert 22 Foundation (a charity registered in England and Wales № 1134939) a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to building cultural bridges between Russia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics and the rest of the world. The foundation, which was established by Nonna Materkova, a Russian-born, London-based economist, was created in May 2009 with the launch of Calvert 22, a gallery dedicated to contemporary art from these regions.
The gallery, which remains the cornerstone of the foundation’s activity, has received widespread critical and public acclaim. Located in Shoreditch, east London, it uses imaginative curatorial presentation to create a unique platform for the very best in current art from the “former East”. The gallery supports both emerging and more established artists and seeks to shed more light on their artistic practice by producing original, high-quality accompanying publications and holding talks and events.
In addition to The Calvert Journal and the Calvert 22 gallery the foundation has developed a third initiative, also driven by the foundation’s ethos to spread knowledge and awareness across cultural borders - Calvert Education, a cultural exchange and information programme. Calvert Education has teamed up with St Petersburg State University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College) and their partners Bard College, a world-renowned American liberal arts college. Smolny College is the first Russian department to be founded on the principles of a liberal arts education; the department offers a multidisciplinary curriculum taught by a diverse, highly trained faculty that serves a student body of approximately 500. Most classes are small, affording students individualized instruction and the opportunity to work closely with professors. At present, the Calvert Education team is working with its partners to develop new MA programmes in Art Criticism and in Curatorial Studies that will run under the auspices of Smolny College.
The Calvert 22 Foundation’s fundamental belief in the importance of dialogue is expressed in our close collaboration with top universities such as the University of Edinburgh, the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art, and leading cultural institutions, including Tate and the Venice Biennale.
The foundation is supported by a long-term strategic partnership with VTB Capital, one of Russia's leading investment banks.
All branches of the foundation are united by a commitment to a shared set of principles: independence, integrity and inclusivity. These core values allow us to pursue a genuinely humanitarian cultural agenda, independent from governmental dictates or commercial interests. With professional and artistic integrity as our guiding priority, we champion initiatives from outside the cultural mainstream of the major capitals and strive to include marginalised cultures in a global conversation.