Ukraine launches project to popularize Ukrainian culture abroad

That’s according to the Ministry’s press service.

The main goal of Ukraine Now and Forever is to draw the world's attention to Ukrainian culture and art and a further consolidation of the international community in the resistance to russian aggression.

This project will involve two strategic tasks: a call to the world to continue imposing cultural sanctions against russia and to deepening the knowledge of foreign audiences about Ukrainian cultural projects and artistic events.

Ukraine Now and Forever will unite various initiatives and present Ukrainian culture and art to the world in its originality and diversity. Concerts, theater and exhibition projects, presentations of projects by Ukrainian artists and authors, public discussions with Ukrainian intellectuals will be included into the mentioned project.

“Ukrainian culture, a "soft power" that unites and identifies us Ukrainians. Our heritage and art, our values ​​and meanings, our view of the world today and our conscious and subjective position - we have a lot to say. Culture, as a right to self-determination, is that against what the russian federation started a bloody war 8 years ago. At the same time, russia uses its culture as a weapon and an excuse for the horrific crimes committed by its army on our land. Now our Ukrainian culture is filled with completely new meanings. Expanding its borders is an opportunity to draw the attention of other countries both to our history and to today's events, namely to russia's full-scale war against Ukraine,”- said Oleksandr Tkachenko, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Exhibitions, concerts, literary readings, art festivals and so on will be held in cooperation with public initiatives in different countries, Ukrainian artists, creative groups, bands and cultural activists in different countries. The project is considered to show Ukraine in all its cultural diversity and artistic multidisciplinarity.

"This project is our word, our voice and our vision of the future. It brings together different initiatives and different genres. This is an open system to which we invite everyone who cares about Ukrainian culture and art. And the sunflower - the main emblem of the project - will become a symbol of our unity, steadfastness, attraction to the light and a sign that seeds from the pockets of the occupiers will grow on our land,"- adds Galyna Grygorenko, Head of State Agency of Ukraine on Arts and Artistic Education.

The Ukrainian artist Daniel Skrypnyk became the author of the identity of the Ukraine Now and Forever project.

“It's not just a plant, it’s a story about emotions, attention and views. Creating a sketch of a sunflower, I remembered my life, but now it is a symbol of every Ukrainian. The symbol of people who are surrounded by views and attention of others. The sunflower watches, looks around and focuses its attention. At this time such attention is a necessary factor that Ukraine needs. People from all over the world can contribute to the world order and assist in for peace. The sunflower reflects all of us. And it shows the world the real truth,” - shared his views the artist, the author of the symbol of the project.

The identity of the project is freely available at the link for use in initiatives that are ready to demonstrate our identity to the world and call #StandWithUkraine.

The events of the Ukraine Now and Forever project will also be aimed at raising funds for the Fund “Save Ukrainian Culture” to support Ukrainian culture. The charitable multi-currency account of the fund of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and the State Agency of Ukraine for Arts and Art Education was opened in March. The funds raised will be used to protect, evacuate, digitize, preserve and restore cultural property, support cultural and artistic institutions, creative industries, television and radio broadcasting that have been affected, damaged or destroyed as a result of hostilities during the armed aggression against Ukraine.

Account details at the link https://arts.gov.ua/donate/

In addition, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine calls on partners who are ready to hold art events and expand the geography of the project. To suggest your event for display on the site ─ you need to fill in a google form. We unite in support of Ukrainian culture! 

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ministry had already recorded Russian attacks on 189 objects of Ukraine's cultural heritage.