‘SAWalk: Step into Art’ Gathers a Record Number of Participants
The Student Activist Group at HSE University in Perm has held the large-scale ‘SAWalk: Step into Art’ event. This time, the quest walk was dedicated to Perm art: painting, literature, cinema, theatre, and street art. More than 200 students and 40 teams took part in it.
The ‘SAWalk: Step into Art’ route passed through significant places in the city associated with art. The event organisers tried to make it not only competitive, but also educational. In the process of completing creative tasks, the participants discovered many art objects and learned their history and conception. For example, the teams visited the Permian Period gallery, where they had to solve a riddle and look at unique exhibits, and where they met new artists.
SAWalk was a chance for students to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of urban art, have a good time with friends, and enjoy the beauty of Perm together.
Elizaveta Ushakova, member of the Chupapimunyanya team, 1st place
It was an amazing five hours of exciting travel to the most diverse corners of Perm. The tasks, as always, required persistent thinking and careful study of information on the city’s history, sights, and prominent personalities, and sometimes simply involved everyday observation.
That moment when, in the course of thinking, the answer to yet another riddle suddenly dawns on you, brings a feeling of euphoria.
Anna Bakina, member of the Chupapimunyanya team, 1st place
Since the current SAWalk was my third, this time I naturally wanted to take a prize at least. Thanks to my previous experience, I had a good understanding of what I had to pay attention to and what to leave in the background in order to achieve my goal.
Many people think that they need to get around all the places quickly, but it is more important to solve the riddles correctly in order to get as many points as possible. Thanks to my incredible teammates, who had great expertise in art and the theme of this SAWalk, we were able to correctly unravel almost all the locations. And this part—the intense brainstorming—is the most memorable!
Anastasia Demeneva, member of the YUPI team, 2nd place
This SAWalk was more difficult than all the previous ones! We involved everyone we could in solving the questions. The team really enjoyed visiting the Permian Period gallery (previously, we didn’t even know there was one). But, as always, SAWalk is a great opportunity to get to know the city better and spend an unusual day off (and also get a credit in physical education).
Alisa Shirinkina, member of the Troppers team, 3rd place
This is my second time participating in SAWalk and I can confidently say that it is one of the best extracurricular activities! It combines three of my favourite things: physical activity, time with friends, and solving difficult problems!
Ilya Tarasenkov, SAWalk organiser
This SAWalk was different from previous ones. The theme was art, and most of the riddles were about art objects, galleries, and places associated with creativity in Perm. New people came to the third SAWalk—most of the participants were first-year students, and I hope they enjoyed the event. The most important innovation was, of course, the bot, which made life easier for the organisers and teams alike.
Vitaly Galkin, SAWalk organiser
This year’s SAWalk was cutting-edge and different from others because we had a whole new system for collecting and checking responses. We created a Telegram bot through which participants sent us answers, which allowed us to automate and speed up the process of checking them. Matvey Olenin and Maxim Stakhov worked hard on this, for which we are deeply grateful. But they weren’t the only ones who exceeded all expectations—the partner attraction team also did their best this time and brought in a record number of Perm organisations.
There were eateries, museums, theatres, and entertainment venues. The prizes for the participants were very good. If it hadn’t been for my work organising the event, I would have competed for them myself.
This year also saw a record number of participants—almost 200 people! There were both first-year students and ‘old-timers’ who showed that they could still give the younger ones a run for their money. All the riddles were solved, and we (the organisers) received a lot of good feedback about the locations and the list of questions.
Stepan Gutsol, SAWalk organiser
Our team believes that the next SAWalk will be even cooler, better, and more interesting! But it won’t be soon, because now all our efforts are directed towards ArtFest and the Winter Ball, which will be held very soon!
Ekaterina Naydina, SAWalk organiser
To me, the main result is the experience had by the participants; when you understand that the things your team has worked on make people so happy, you want to continue.