2022 is coming to an end, so it's time to summarize results

russia's war against Ukraine made significant changes in the work of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. Before 24th of February we had our usual life. We accepted grant applications and did our regular work in January, but at the end of February we started the fight - each on his own front. We have refocused our work and have been working on various fronts together with the whole country to bring Victory Day closer.

2022 is coming to an end, so it's time to summarize its results. Looking ahead, we thank you that we spent these almost 365 days together side by side.

From the first days of the war, we started the fight for cultural sanctions against the russian federation. The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation appealed to more than 3,000 foreign institutions, foundations and international unions with the demand to publicly oppose the russian war in Ukraine and stop any cooperation with the aggressor; we took part in more than 70 online and offline international events, in particular in the international symposium in Romania Why culture matters?, the charity concert of the U.S-Ukraine Foundation in support of Ukraine The World Stands with Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Film Festival in Namibia, "Days of Culture Crimea in Turkey" and others.

More than 100 institutions suspended cooperation with russia or are in the process of doing so, for instance The International Council on Archives,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 and others. Fortunately, the number of such institutions is growing daily. 

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 it was not possible to achieve this goal by 100%, the russian federation was still deprived of the right to hold the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Now, by the way, you may sign the petition with the demand to exclude russia from the UN. You can sign the petition here. This is important, because today the russian federation blocks any attempts to create an international tribunal to punish its war criminals or vetoes decisions regarding the payment of reparations to our state.

At the beginning of the war, russia actively promoted the narrative that their army allegedly makes surgical strikes only on military infrastructure. To refute  different statements, we launched an interactive "Map of Cultural Losses", which was visited by more than 50,000 users in the first few days.

Unfortunately, as of December 20, the russian army has already destroyed or partially damaged more than 550 objects of cultural heritage. The map also served as a basis for reports from international organizations, including UNESCO.

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 during the war, we have launched this information digest "Chronicles of the Cultural Front". Moreover, this digest was started because of russian invasion. We are happy to have more than 10 000 readers. The first issue was sent on March 16, 2022, and today you are reading the 57th.

The language of art is really important and at the same time a “gentle" reminder of our country and the war in Ukraine that was started by russia. Therefore, four months after the full-scale invasion, we launched the Art of Victory portal - a space where anyone can share their art work to support the invincible spirit of Ukrainians in the face of russian aggression. More than 1000 artists have already published their works on the platform. Share them with your friends, use them as accompanying images to your posts on social networks - the whole world should know and remember our fight against the russians!

In order to find additional funding to support Ukrainian artists and cultural projects in the conditions of armed aggression of the russian federation, we turned to about 9,000 different institutions with letters of support for artists. In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and the IT company SoftServe we have launched the platform "Cultural Space". Together with the charitable fund "Ukrainian Educational Foundation" we launched a fundraising campaign "Help to save Ukrainian culture now!", which involved ambassadors of the Ukrainian Culture Foundation, including Bohdana Pivnenko, Herman Makarenko, Iryna Frenkel, Nellie Bondarenko, and others. We joined efforts with PEN America's Artists at Risk Connection program to help cultural artists in the visual arts sector.

With support of the UCF, the social project for children "Koliskova KinoKraina" (en. Lullaby Film Country) was implemented together with the film company Big Hand Films and the St. Nicholas Charity Foundation. Moreover, the national movement "United" announced free Ukrainian language courses supported by the UCF. The art project "Kherson region is Ukraine", supported by the UCF, was launched in cooperation with the Agency for Regional Development of the Tavria Union of Territorial Communities and "This Craft".

Together with you, we held some round tables on the sectors of culture. Also we have conducted a survey "The State of Culture and Creative Industries during the War" to form a vision about culture and creative industries during the war.

In addition to the projects listed above, we provided "Scholarships for the resuming of cultural activities", and three months later announced the Grant season for 2023. There will be 6 grant programs to support Ukrainian artists, including 3 programs for 2022, a competition for which was not completed due to the full-scale military invasion of russia on the territory of Ukraine.

With faith in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and gratitude for the opportunity to write this text here, in free Ukraine, we wish each of you a bright New Year! 

Year of achievements and Victory!