Themes by tag: culture

A press conference of Suspilne Public Broadcasting Company and the finalists of the National Selection representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will be held at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform on January 11. 

During the event, eleven songs of the finalists will be presented, as well as the draw for performances running order for the final of the National Selection. The event will be moderated by the permanent commentator and host of the National Selection for Eurovision Timur Miroshnychenko.

For reference: The final of the National Selection aired as a live concert on TV will take place on February 3. As in previous years, the winner of the selection and the Ukraine representative for Eurovision 2024 will be determined in a split by jury and viewers. The jury of the final will be selected by Ukrainians via online voting.

The 68th Eurovision Song Contest, featuring 37 countries’ representatives will be hosted by the Swedish city of Malmö in May 2024. The semifinals, one of which will include a representative from Ukraine, will take place on May 7 and 9. The Grand Final of Eurovision 2024 will be held at the Malmö Arena on Saturday, May 11.

• culture
• Kyiv

The Family Art Retreat Project will be held in Lviv from January 6 to 12. Its development process was influenced by the input of experienced professionals from Ukraine and the UK in order to allow children and adults to try their hand at different types of creativity and generate healing through art. 

The project involved 20 IDP children aged 9 to 16 and their families. Participation is free of charge.

The project includes using improv techniques for children, such as acting, music therapy, and dance and movement therapy. Training sessions, self-help lectures, and the use of art practices to support children are available for adults. The program will also include open lectures on psychotherapy and music therapy.

Among the project’s presenters is Nigel Osborne, a British composer, art therapist, and specialist in music and art therapies that positively benefit children traumatized by military conflicts.

For reference: The project is delivered by the “ART DOT” NGO (Kharkiv, Ukraine) in partnership with the Street Culture NGO with the financial support of the Razom Foundation and the “Culture Helps” program, which is implemented by Insha Osvita in cooperation with zusa with the EU support.

• casualties
• children
• culture
• psychological support
• Lviv

Olena Zinova is an entrepreneur from Kherson. For more than 20 years, the woman has run her own shop and sold embroidered Ukrainian shirts, towels, jewelry and souvenirs with Petrykivka painting. When the enemy occupied Olena’s hometown in 2022, she had to carefully hide all things with Ukrainian symbols and close the store, because the russians were looking for and destroying everything that was even remotely connected to Ukraine. Olena had lived under the occupation for three months, when she finally decided to leave and take a collection of embroidered shirts and the Ukrainian flag with her. Together with her family, the woman managed to pass through 33 russian roadblocks, even though each one could be the last, Olena says.

The entrepreneur’s family settled in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, where she immediately began to rebuild her business. Olena made another shop from scratch, had renovations done there and bought equipment to replace what she had had to leave in Kherson. Nowadays, clothes from Olena’s shop aren’t worn only in Kryvyi Rih, as she also receives orders from abroad. The woman dreams that soon she will be able to return to her hometown and once again please customers with Ukrainian embroidered shirts.

For reference: on November 11, 2022, the Defense Forces of Ukraine liberated Kherson from the occupiers. Since then russia has been constantly shelling the city and killing Kherson civilians. 

• culture
• occupation
• reconstruction
• women
• Dnipro

On January 13-14, Kyiv will host a new masterclass session as part of the project “Thousands of Love Stories. Paintings of Wives of Real Heroes.” At the event, women who lost their husbands during the war will paint pictures.

The charity project was started by the artist Oleg Yurov in January of last year. Since then, over 200 women took part in art workshops, during which they created paintings in memory of the men who had died defending Ukraine. In particular, women made pictures of their dreams, objects or sensations associated with their deceased loved ones. An exhibition of paintings by those who took part in the charity project has recently been held in Kyiv.

• culture
• dead
• military
• women
• Kyiv

On December 23, Kyiv will host an offline screening of the full-length documentary “Christmas Together” by Ukraїner. The film will simultaneously premiere in 4 other cities of Ukraine.

“Christmas Together” is an evocative full-length film illustrating how young people from all over Ukraine united under a common idea – to bring the holiday spirit to the de-occupied territories. In January 2023, three separate initiatives embarked on journeys to Sloboda area and Donetsk region to support people who had survived the occupation and the horrors of the russian invasion.

The idea of bringing young people together and taking the vertep theater to the East of Ukraine belongs to Ukraїner volunteer Viktor Perfetskyi, who comes from the village of Volytsia in Podillia area. A similar campaign “Christmas together” existed in the 2000s. At that time, families in the west of Ukraine hosted children from the east and the south for Christmas in order to introduce them to the traditions preserved in Halychyna, Volyn and Podillia areas. Now the Ukraїner team has resumed the campaign, but in a slightly different way.

During the trips, the vertep theaters visited Kharkiv, Slobozhanske, Balakliia, Izyum, Khrestyshche, Derhachi, Mali and Velyki Prokhody, Mala Rohan, Trostianka, and Okhtyrka.

Pre-registration is required. The team that contributed to the film’s creation will be present in Kyiv.

For reference: Ukraїner is a community and organization that has been researching Ukraine and the Ukrainian context since 2016, telling stories to Ukrainians themselves, and sharing them with the world, having translated them into dozens of languages. On February 24, 2022, russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. On the same day, Ukraїner relaunched all its communication channels and began talking about the war and overcoming the disasters caused by the occupying forces. 

• culture
• Kyiv

On December 25, the largest didukh in Ukraine, measuring 7.5 meters high will be installed in Kyiv. The trident-shaped didukh will be made of wheat. It was created by paratrooper Yaroslav Kuchma, who was temporarily unable to walk due to an injury, and 95-year-old Pelageya Zhyvko from the Lviv region.

News media to cover participants giving comments on the event:

– the National Register of Records of Ukraine experts;

– Tetiana Volochai, Director at MHP-Hromadi Charitable Foundation (that provided financial support to the initiative);

– Pavlo Moroz, Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department of MHP;

– Oksana Poviakel, Director General of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine;

– Yaroslav Kuchma, paratrooper, commander of the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade of the Airborne Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Event accreditation is required.

For reference: Didukh is a Ukrainian Christmas decoration made of ears of grain (originally a pagan idol, a symbol of a patron ancestor, and a symbol of harvest, prosperity, and wealth).

• culture
• religion
• Kyiv

On December 23, the exhibition “Fragility” will open in Kyiv. This exhibition is dedicated to prisoners of war and those who are waiting for their relatives and friends from captivity.

In the first days of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, defenders and workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were under the russian occupation.

On March 31, 2022, the russians captured 169 Ukrainian National Guardsmen on the territory of the Chernobyl NPP and took them to Bryansk region of the russian federation. 108 of them still remain in captivity.

In order to draw attention to these prisoners of war and support the families who are waiting for the return of their loved ones, a gallery in the capital will display paintings, sculptures and digital works by more than 20 contemporary foreign and Ukrainian artists.

At the opening, everyone will be able to talk with relatives and friends of the Guardsmen — the defenders of the Chernobyl NPP — and watch a short documentary made by Babylon’13 film collective about the work of combat medics from Hospitallers battalion.

50 of the presented works will be available for purchase at an online auction. Funds will be directed to the Hospitallers battalion to support “Avstriika” hospital on wheels.

The event requires accreditation.

• casualties
• culture
• prisoners
• Kyiv

Odesa National Fine Art Museum resumes its work after being hit by a russian missile. On December 15, an Open Day will be held there. Journalists are welcome to cover the press conference.

For reference, on November 6, 2023, the museum planned to celebrate its 124th anniversary. A day before the festivities, the russian rocket hit the area close to the museum. The shock wave damaged the administration building, and the exhibition halls were also damaged. Experts set about fixing the consequences of the damage, and the museum was closed to visitors.

• culture
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• Odesa

On December 10, in Kyiv, Plast will hold the first official event in Ukraine to transfer the Light of Bethlehem to the military, civil and volunteer organizations. In particular, representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, “Come back Alive” Foundation, the Serhiy Prytula Foundation, BUR, ULA and many others will receive a lamp with the Light from the Holy Land.

Plast scouts will receive a lamp with the Light of Bethlehem at a traditional scouting ceremony in Vienna on the morning of December 10 and will immediately take it to Kyiv. The event in the capital will begin with a marathon of good deeds for the military. Plast scouts and guests will make trench candles, helmets, bracelets and letters. Then this winter’s first official transfer of the Peace Light of Bethlehem in Ukraine will begin: Plast will share the Light with everyone present.

Later, through Ukrzaliznytsia, it will be distributed to all corners of the country. Lamps will also be delivered for defenders at the front lines.

Background: Plast has been participating in the “scout relay” of the Bethlehem Light for more than 30 years.

• culture
• military
• religion
• volunteers

Mykhailo Oliinyk is a composer, pianist, and music producer. He was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Yakiv Handziuk in April 2023. Mykhailo is a member of the Cultural Forces Public Organization, which provides emotional and psychological support to defenders on the front line. He got a call sign “Pianist”. 

Recently, the man put out a record of “A Moment” piano pieces composed at the front line. This music has already been performed hundreds of times in forestation areas, destroyed buildings, fields, hospitals, and impromptu concert venues for the defenders. The album includes seven compositions: “Donbas”, “Huliaipole”, “Prayer for Brothers-in-Arms”, “Water Dance”, “Music Box”, “Peach Sky”, and “Ukrainian Sky”.

As a member of the Cultural Forces Public Organization Mykhailo plays several concerts every day at the front line.

By prior arrangement, journalists are welcome to talk to Mykhailo online or offline.

For reference: Mykhailo Oliinyk is a graduate of the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music named after R. Glier and the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy. In the civilian world, he creates music for artists and businesses. He is a coach for young musicians and a lecturer on copyright issues.

• culture
• military