Ministry of Culture reported for 2018 (VIDEO)

Photo: screenshot from video

On January 18, Yevhen Nyshchuk, Minister of Culture of Ukraine, together with his deputies, held a press conference on the activities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in 2018 in Kyiv at the National Taras Shevchenko Museum.

As the head of the department himself noted, such a measure is intended to inform the media and society about the achievements over the past year, to tell the changes that have taken place in the cultural sphere itself, as well as to announce the key events of 2019 in the cultural sphere.

“For us, dear friends, it was important to meet with you in such an informal report format in order to tell about the past year, about the processes that are undergoing cultural policy, about the changes that are taking place in the ministry itself. It is very important that the attitude of Ukrainians to the sphere of culture is changing, and most importantly, the attitude of officials from other departments, other high offices in the sphere of culture, as well as an understanding of the importance of its importance for the formation of general political processes of development of society and the state in general. First of all, I want to focus on the key event of the past year – this is Tomos. This is the defining event of the year; it is the victory of the historical justice of a whole generation of Ukrainians. Behind this decision is a big and long work of more than one day, especially in the last two years. This is a great organizational and technical work, which among other things was carried out by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, since it is in the Ministry of Culture that there is a department for religion and interethnic relations. I would like to once again take this opportunity to say that this is not a question of relations between the state and the church; it is not a question of state intervention in church matters. This is actually a moment of state security; this is excommunication from the Kremlin ideology. This is an important thing for the unity of society,” said the Minister of Culture of Ukraine.

However, the official said that now the Ministry of Culture is fighting for the preservation of cultural heritage sites.

“I will be frank; me and the team of the Ministry are fighting for each object of cultural heritage (mobile or stationary, tangible or intangible) national memory. I would like to say that in the understanding of most people, the main owner of such facilities is the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, but this is not so. Its owner is the community in whose territory the heritage sites are located, which should take care of the proper level of preservation and protection of its cultural heritage. The office of the Ministry of Culture counted on the fingers the objects for which we actually allocate funds for the restoration and repair work. The ministry does not have territorial bodies that monitored compliance with the law and the level of cultural heritage in communities, but we actively respond to appeals from the public and ask journalists to join in joint efforts to preserve and restore the heritage throughout Ukraine,” Nyshchuk informed.

During the meeting with representatives of the media, the Minister spoke about the steps taken to preserve the national memory. In particular, he reported on the revitalization of the construction of the “Museum of Holodomor Victims” of the second stage, to which, he said, almost 10 years had not reached. We began actively building it. He also recalled the construction of the National Memorial Complex of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity.

“The third object, which is very important, is the “Babiy Yar Reserve”. You know that, from the abandoned park, literally over the past year and a half, our work has created the “Walk of Sorrow”. There is not a single case of vandalism in the Minor, because there is video surveillance and lighting,” added Yevhen Nyshchuk.

During his speech, the official dwelt separately on the question of the fate of the Ukrainian heritage located in the temporarily occupied territories.

“The practical destruction of the Bakhchsarai Palace, black archaeological excavations, the building of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos.” Having no physical access to these objects, to these monuments, it is difficult to assess the degree of bullying them. Therefore, we initiated direct comprehensive monitoring by UNESCO experts of monuments located in the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, ” the Minister of Culture said.

He also noted that the Ministry of Culture is working to resolve the issue of returning lost cultural property to Ukraine, in particular, during the Second World War. In addition, according to the Minister of Culture, transparent financing of cultural projects through satellite institutions of the ministry, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Book Institute, has already been established. According to the official, in 2018, 716 applications were submitted to the competitive selection of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund, which were evaluated by 58 experts from eight expert councils. According to the results of the competition, 297 projects received unprecedented support in the amount of almost UAH 149 million. The Ukrainian Book Institute works well. To replenish the funds of public libraries, it is recommended to purchase 741 books with a total circulation of 1 million 28 thousand 800 copies from 92 publishing houses for a total of about 120 million UAH.

“The Ukrainian book in a broad sense should march around the world, therefore, a constant practice for the Ministry of Culture is to ensure the participation of Ukraine in the Frankfurt Book Fair, supported by the Lviv Publishers Forum, Book Arsenal in Kyiv. In March of this year, Ukraine will take part in the London Book Fair for the first time. All steps taken by the Ministry of Culture in the direction of popularization of reading, support of publishing, development of domestic literature are inseparably linked with strengthening the position of the state language in all spheres of public life,” said Nyshchuk.

One of the vectors of the work of the Ministry of Culture is the access of Ukrainian artists to international programs and funds, such as Creative Europe, Evrimage, Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. And this direction is directly connected with the entry into the European cultural space of powerful creative industries, including film content.

“What we are really proud of is our film industry. It is thanks to the state legal and financial support of cinema that it is in a state of rapid development, we are witnessing a truly revival of Ukrainian cinema art,” he said.

In addition, the Minister of Culture announced important cultural events that will become markers of the cultural life of our state this year. Among them, the International Museum Forum in June, Europe Day at the Sofia Square in May, the National Representation of Ukraine at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art in the main pavilion of Arsenal, the powerful national presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Young Biennale in Kharkiv, the International Forum Ukraine in November .
For more information about all this, as well as a video version of the speech of the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevhen Nyshchuk, see the story of the Journalist.