TIME KEEPERS
On October, 21st the Exhibition and Information Centre of Ulba Metallurgical Plant has celebrated its 20th anniversary.
How it all began
The history started in 1981 from the Museum of the labor glory which was located in a small room in the Central Recreation Centre which in days of reorganisation gradually became ownerless. In 1999, in the year of the 50th anniversary of ULBA, Vitaliy Khadeev set the task – to create a museum in order to keep great history of the plant, as an example for imitation. Eminent plant workers, having great experience and delicate taste and lots of ideas, started working on a new project as they precisely knew that the museum would never be same – Albert Hoffmann, Svetlana Mordvinova and Vladimir Dontsov, later Galina Kosouhova joined them.
Albert Hoffmann, Director of the Exhibition and Information Center:
– We wanted to expand a museum, we already knew that would be a center of exhibition and information.
A creative team had a task to develop action plan for the anniversary celebration also. And all that had been developed then, became a kind tradition today. It is the book, it is a hymn, these are the concerts collecting thousand of Ulba employees in the Palace of Sports and Central Recreation Centre. There were albums – nothing is missed, all is kept.
Citadel of the past, the future and the present
On October 21st of 1999 civil work in the chosen premise – the former shop – were finished. A hall of historical glory was started. Later the hall of operating manufactures was started to demonstrate samples of the products and interactive plant mock-up was arranged and started. Plasma panels were installed with touch screens where everybody can find information about National Atomic Company Kazatomprom, Ulba Metallurgical Plant JSC, Uranium, Beryllium and Tantalum operations, quality management system and environment protection were established.
In 2005 all materials kept and stored in the center were made in electronic format and are available on an internal portal.
In the Center of Exhibition and Information we have a conference hall, a small hall of negotiations, hall of gifts, hall of the art-applied creativity.
Today the Center of Exhibition and Information welcomes delegations of visitors from near and far abroad, political leaders, in the center we host political and scientific actions, conferences, meetings, lectures, public hearings. Annually in the Center of Exhibition and Information has a ceremony of the protection of degree projects by students from regional universities on themes and topics of interest for the plant. The Center of Exhibition and Information pays attention to the vocational guidance of schoolchildren, students of colleges and high schools of technical specialities. It is made to search for and engage experts the plant needs and requires.
As of today the number of the center visitors makes 157 000 persons!
Not only colleagues …
The team of the Center of Exhibition and Information, as before, is small, but same creative and understanding.
Permanent head is Albert Hoffmann, Vladimir Dontsov is the head of interactive maintenance of the information work team, Alena Konstantinova and Elena Lugovskaja are experts in touring and exhibition work. Comfort and order are the responsibility by Oksana Degtyaryov and Natalia Vorobeva who replaced Galina Kosouhova, Elena Klimova and Galina Goncharenko as former employees. Two years ago Svetlana Mordvinova retired however she is a good friend to her former team.
The history ULBA and the Center of Exhibition and Information have, runs on …
By Anna Chumina
