Special edition - Chronicles of the Cultural Front

This year, before the full-scale military invasion of the russian federation, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation received more than 2,700 grant applications to support cultural and artistic projects in such sectors as cultural heritage, creative industries, literature, audiovisual arts, etc. In February 2022, we were ready to announce additional grant competitions for "Regional Initiatives" and began expert evaluation of projects that have passed technical selection.

However, the morning of February 24, 2022 radically changed our lives.

We have refocused our work and have been working on various fronts together with the whole country for over seven weeks to bring Victory Day closer.

The tenth issue of the digest "CHRONICLES OF THE CULTURAL FRONT" is about our work, the work of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation during the war.

OUR HEROES

From the first days of the war, as all Ukrainian people, we have united in one goal – to fight russian aggression, to expel the enemy from our homeland.

Today, each of us is doing everything possible and impossible to ensure that this war ends and we win. Our colleagues translate news about the war to foreign media around the clock, make blood donations, work with humanitarian aid, and join territorial defense units. For security reasons, we will not publish their names, departments or photos. However, as a sign of respect and boundless gratitude, we could not stay silent. 

STAND WITH UKRAINE

Russia's war against Ukraine has made significant changes in our daily work. Just in December, we planned the 2023 grant season with its early start in summer 2022, so that our applicants have more time to prepare and implement cultural projects (from February to November). At the same time we were processing already received applications for projects to be implemented this year. Now the work of the Foundation has been forced to partially suspend. According to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, funds in the amount of UAH 637 million (approx. EUR 20 million) provided for operational activities and implementation of cultural projects in 2022, were transferred to the Ukrainian Army to counter aggression of the russian federation. The most important thing for all of us now is to repel russian aggression, save Ukraine, and restore control over the national border.

However, in order to support Ukrainian culture and our artists we have launched a fundraising campaign. We call on our public and private foreign partners to join our initiative. We aim to support cultural artists who stay in Ukraine, projects that promote Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian media and also the UCF activities. 

Moreover, we plan to hold discussions on support of Ukrainian culture with representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora on April 19. Namely we will discuss the state of the cultural sectors from the perspective of UCF experts, the fundraising campaign and possible ways to support Ukrainian culture.

CULTURAL SANCTIONS

In addition to the fundraising campaign, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation has been fighting for cultural sanctions against the russian federation since the first day of the war. We do not believe that culture is out of politics or war, and we have appealed to various European and international institutions to publicly oppose russian aggression in Ukraine, suspend membership or expel russians from any international community. In total, more than 3,000 letters have already been sent. The International Council on Archives, the Canada Council for the Arts, the European Festivals Association (EFA), the Slovak Film Institute, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Arts Council England, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture and Sport of Spain, Vilnius International Film Festival, Association of Icelandic Visual Artists - all of them have already suspended cooperation with russia or are in the process of doing so. Fortunately, the number of such institutions is growing daily. We have to isolate russia in the global cultural arena!

We are also really grateful to all who have joined our appeal to UNESCO to revoke russia’s right to hold the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Kazan, Russia. Although slowly, diplomatic work is moving into the right direction.

By the way, more than 80 international organizations have developed and offered various programs for Ukrainian artists who stay in Ukraine and for those who were forced to leave abroad. We tell about them in our digest "Chronicles of the Cultural Front" in the section "Opportunities for Ukrainians", as well as in our Telegram channel under the hashtag #internationalopportunitiesUCF (#міжнародніможливостіУКФ).

CULTURE AGAINST WAR 

In order to keep culture on the agenda and at the same time to inform you about the key news and events in the field of culture, we have launched this information digest "Chronicles of the Cultural Front".

Twice a week, we tell you about events and cultural initiatives in support of the Ukrainian people, opportunities for Ukrainian cultural artists, and how the representatives of creative industries from all over the world combine their efforts in fighting russian aggression. The first issue was sent on March 16, 2022. Today, the total number of readers is over 10,000. Digests issues are available at the following links: in Ukrainian or English.

We also could not leave aside the cultural heritage that was destroyed or partially damaged as a result of a full-scale russian military invasion of Ukraine. We have launched an interactive "Map of Cultural Losses" to demonstrate the scale of the damages. Visualization of such war crimes also refutes different statements of the russian authorities that their army allegedly makes surgical strikes only on military infrastructure. According to preliminary estimates, over 150 monuments and cultural sites were damaged or destroyed.

CULTURE AFTER OUR VICTORY

We believe in our victory. Therefore, in order to fully return to our daily work, our analysts together with project managers have already begun work on analytical reports. We will need them to create new grant programs and, as a result, new cultural products.Currently, as part of the preparation of analytical reports, we are conducting a survey among our stakeholders.

Later, we will present all results to the public, and implement them in the updated grant programs and our new strategy of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, a "peaceful" version of which we could not present to the public.

In general, the new reality of peaceful life will require new priorities to support. And together with you we will be ready for this.

Let's stay in touch and work for victory! Stand with Ukraine!

Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and all those who defend our state!