The Moscow Arts Theatre celebrates its centenary this year: its heritage has been transmitted through an unbroken relay of actors trained by the company school in Stanislavsky's Method.
It is also an opportunity to celebrate the contribution of women to chemistry, on the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize in chemistry to Marie Sklodowska Curie.
The lecture came as part of Parliament Week, which is an initiative to try to connect the public with their legislature during the centenary year of the 1911 Parliament Act - the basis of the relationship between the Lords and the Commons.
The congress also encompassed an exhibition of eight different ethnic communities based on field work carried out by the NFS. An international poetry recitation and folk-performance on the occasion of the birth-centenary of the Nepali poet Siddhicharan Shrestha was also part of the congress.
Nominees for the arts and culture award included the Ulster Orchestra and the west Belfast Feile an Phobail for the performance of Mozart's Requiem in Clonard Monastery to mark the centenary of the historic church.
Levein says he has added depth and quality to his United side this season and, in this their centenary year, the Tannadice men are a good bet for a third-place finish and perhaps an elusive cup win.