Dmytro Reshetchenko: Time for certification of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation’s experts

Peculiarities of the grant seasons 2021 and 2022, increased competition between the applicants and frankly – the necessity and ways to improve the quality of the existing expertise was discussed by program participants and Deputy Executive Director of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation Dmytro Reshetchenko as part of Museum Education educational experience exchange project.

“There have always been and probably will continue to be questions from applicants about the quality of expertise until a certification programme is implemented. Today, the reality is that highly qualified professionals in the area of culture, who are trusted and recommended to us as experts in their speciality, explicitly declare their conflict of interest, because they themselves are applying for grants from the Foundation, ultimately choosing to apply for grants, rather than going as experts to assess cultural projects of applicants. Hence, along with the start of the new grant season 2022, the time will come for certification of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation’s experts. The professional development course for all expert councils of the Foundation without exception will also become obligatory”, – Dmytro Reshetchenko specified.

According to the Head of the Foundation’s project activities, the statistics of applications, the number of supported projects and the state budget allocated for them will only grow, so the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation is already creating additional opportunities for future co-financing at regional and international levels. At the same time he assures that the main UCF budget for supporting creative ideas will not diminish.

“Competition for projects to be funded is also growing every year. The regulatory requirements for applicants’ ideas are becoming stricter, and the projects selected for implementation must be even more qualitatively different. Therefore, it is very important, while considering the idea and drafting the application, to pay attention to such things as cross-sectoral activities, innovativeness, the possibility of applying digital technologies etc. And this is not just a requirement of the Foundation, it is a requirement of the modern world: to be inventive and relevant”, – Dmytro Reshetchenko noted.

Let us remind that the Museum Education educational experience exchange project is implemented with the support of UCF and provides for a 5-day intensive program: informative excursions, unique workshop classes, interesting meetings and motivating lectures from the coolest museum gurus – everything to make us have even more fun, benefit and excitement when visiting Ukrainian modern museums.

Learn more about the program: https://www.museumsun.org/blog/130/