Arts Institutes

educational institutions that train creative and pedagogical students in music, theater, fine arts, and cultural enlightenment.

In 1971 there were eight arts institutes in the USSR: the Far Eastern Pedagogical Institute of the Arts (1962), the Ufa Institute of the Arts (1968), the G. Muzichesku Institute of the Arts of the Moldavian SSR (1963; successor to the Kishinev Conservatory, founded in 1940), the Kurmangazy Institute of the Arts of the Kazakh SSR (1963; supplants the Alma-Ata Conservatory, founded in 1944), the Kharkov Institute of the Arts (1963; supplants the Kharkov Conservatory, 1917, and the Kharkov Theatrical Institute, 1941), the Kirghiz Institute of the Arts (1967), the M. A. Aliev Azerbaijan Institute of the Arts (1969; supplants the Azerbaijan Theatrical Institute, 1945), and the Voronezh Institute of the Arts (1971).

All the arts institutes except the Azerbaijan have music departments, and all but the Kirghiz have divisions for stage and film acting. The Kharkov institute also trains theater directors; the Far Eastern, teachers of draftsmanship and drawing; the Azerbaijan, directors, theater scholars, and specialists in industrial art and fashion design for the textile and light industries; the Moldavia, Khirghiz, and Azerbaijan institutes train cultural enlightenment workers; and the Ufa and Voronezh institutes, directors for people’s theaters.

The academic program in the arts institutes conforms with the curricula and syllabi of conservatories, higher theatrical and art schools, and institutes of culture. They offer a five-year course, but the departments for stage and film actors and for cultural enlightenment workers have four-year programs. Graduating students take state examinations, defend theses, and receive certification in their chosen specialties—for example, concert performer, teacher, concertmaster, choral director, musicologist, artist-technologist, or specialized qualified club worker.