Meeting with experts of the UCF: Expert councils of 2021-2022 and plans for future

On June 17, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation held a regional meeting with experts of the UCF who live in Lviv or have evacuated from dangerous regions of Ukraine and are temporarily located in Lviv region. Among the discussion topics were improving the work of expert councils and developing proposals for the strategy and ways of rebuilding Ukrainian culture for 2023.

In the first part of the event, were presented the activities of the UCF under martial law and the prospects for the implementation of the grant season in 2022 by the representatives of the UCF. In particular, Vladyslav Berkovski, Executive Director of the UCF, made a report on the reconstruction of Ukrainian culture and the place of grant support in it. Natalia Soroka, Deputy Head of the Expert Department, summarized the work of the UCF expert councils during the 2021–2022 grant years. Dmytro Reshetchenko, Deputy Executive Director for Project Work, informed about the selection plans for the expert councils in 2023 and suggested ways to improve the work of expert councils in the future.

The second part of the meeting was devoted to discussing the project evaluation process, proposals for the grant season in martial law, the possibility of institutional support for Ukrainian culture and its promotion in the world as key in the context of European integration.

According to the expert of the UCF Grant Program "Grand Event" Ostap Manulyak, associate professor of the Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko, the biggest problem of many applications is the incorrect formulation of the purpose and objectives of the project, which is a general trend in the arts. The UCF expert also raised the issue of education, in particular in art institutions.

Oleksandra Onyshkevych, an expert of the UCF Grant Program "Culture Without Barriers" and acting director of the Hnat Khotkevych Palace of Culture, noted the difficulty of evaluating during the start of a full-scale invasion, when there was no understanding of how the projects would be implemented. The UCF expert also noted that many applications have been submitted for major repairs or construction work, while such issues should be resolved with the authorities and not through grants from the Foundation. Oleksandra Onyshkevych also paid attention to additional explanations to applicants regarding teams building and filling out project budgets, as well as providing an opportunity to edit the submitted applications.

Danylo Ilnytskyi, an expert of the UCF Grant Program "Innovative Cultural Product" and a lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University, focused on the role of the UCF as a catalyst for cultural processes. "Ukrainian culture has enough potential to create trends in all kinds of arts. All these points have to be developed", - said Danylo Ilnytskyi. The UCF expert also stressed the need to preserve both the level and quality of the institute of expert evaluation and the further development of independence and transparency of expert evaluation in the UCF.