Garish layers of paint peel from the greasy walls. The windows look out onto scraggly bushes.
The floorboards are ripped out in one section of one room, revealing the building’s grey, dusty entrails and hissing, leaking, rusty pipes.
“If you see something moving, it’s a cat, not a rat”, Goman says with a grin.
Last year he quit his well-paying job as youth coordinator for the regional administration, where he had worked for eight years, to pursue his dream of building a youth center in Murmansk.
As he explains the project, the pile of rubble behind him, the peeling paint, the scraps of paper on the floor and the mess of wiring hanging from the ceiling melt away. Through his words they are transformed into a bright, clean space where young artists, activists, actors and others will find shelter and support as they carry out their own projects.
Goman was inspired by a youth center he saw in Tromsø seven years ago.
“I had a lump in my throat”, says Goman, who decided then and there that Murmansk needed a youth house as well. A real youth center, he says, would be closer to the city’s center. It would have an auditorium and a café, and it would be able to house thousands.
For now, this flat is a good enough start. He and a group of up to 50 young people, including singers in his choir, The Xop, actors and activists, are renovating the old flat, which they leased for two years.
When initial renovations are finished - Goman has September in mind for a deadline - the 370-square meter apartment will house project leaders and offer sound and video editing studios, a space for theater rehearsals, a craft room and a computer room for administrative work.
The center will also house a film school for the Barents region where young people can receive an informal two-year education in film production. The Norwegian government is helping organize the project.
Earlier this year, his friends in Tromsø promoted the idea to the chairman of Murmansk’s regional Duma. That’s when the project was approved. Goman hopes that if the center is successful, the regional government will be persuaded to build a larger one.
As he stands in what he calls the piano room, he glows with pride.
“This is where all the project managers will be sitting”, he says.
He plans to collect the frames of old, discarded pianos and turn them into computer desks for various projects. Each piano will be a work station for the project managers.
To get a seat in the piano room, potential project leaders have to pitch their idea to a youth council in charge of the centre. The project duration can be up to two years, during which time the project managers are free to live in the centre. When their work is complete, they become guests at the center, freeing up space for new projects.
“We want to do that so that we don’t have same people year after year”, says Goman. “We want this to be renewable, so there’s always this spirit of openness”.
A thread from each
It will cost at least a million rubles to renovate the flat. For now the rent is free, but the group still has to pay for utilities. That alone costs three times as much as rent.
The carpenters and plumbers are offering most of their services for free. The electrician even offered to teach the group how to do odd jobs, so that they would be self-reliant.
The flat is in a residential building, and some of the neighbours give the group access to running water until the council gets a license to use electricity and water.
Members of the youth council volunteer their time to clear out the space before renovations begin. They’re also running a campaign with the slogan, “a thread from each makes a shirt for one person.”
“We’re saying you all have something in homes, leftovers from construction work or old computers. Bring it all here. Don’t leave it gathering dust in the house”.
The renovations will cost them at least one million rubles. That’s not counting money for equipment, for which Goman hopes to receive funding from international organizations.
Goman doesn’t get paid for what he does, but he doesn’t consider money a necessary reward.
“I know from my own experience that when you get support from somebody, you get really empowered … If you don’t get support, you become like everybody else, less active and more [focused on] industry. And that’s really bad”.
He envisions a social business approach for the center, so that each project will generate new ideas, or what he calls a “plus.”
“Everything will be productive in some way”.
Superheroes wear glasses too
On a Saturday evening in Murmansk, The Xop gives an a capella performance for which it’s famous. Many of the members are helping build the youth center.
The group marches onto stage, proudly wearing their black-rimmed glasses. The singers wear stereotypical nerd outfits, with the glasses as their tribute to those who think outside the box. They weave skits into their performance with Goman playing the teacher and the singers his students proudly demonstrating the value of their education.
A slideshow plays behind them, showcasing photos of superheroes whose alter egos wear glasses. Clark Kent and Diana Prince, declares Goman’s character, are nerds too. That makes all nerds superheroes.
It will take a superhero’s effort to restore the house and turn it into a youth center. But Goman is fully committed.
“I get no salary, but a lot of spirit. Much more spirit than I had [working for the administration]”.
