On 9-11 February, a three-day course “Economy Grows Through Culture” was held in the Kyiv region, on the outskirts of the city of Bohuslav. The organising committee selected 50 participants, including representatives of NGOs, whose main focus is the development of local culture, business and creative industries, as well as representatives of the cultural and economic sector of small communities in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Odesa regions.
Day One
The first day of the “Economy Grows Through Culture” course welcomed the participants with snowy weather, the cosiness of pine trees on the Ros’ River, new encounters and insights.
The list of speakers on this day included British playwright, theatre director and stage manager Chris Baldwin; director of the “Democracy through Culture” Development Centre Oleksandr Butsenko; deputy head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Yaroslava Vashchenko; and head of the Expert Council on Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Valentyna Demian.
Below are some of the inspiring points made by our speakers.
Oleksandr Butsenko, director of the “Democracy through Culture” Development Centre, emphasised: “We need to consider how to reconcile culture and economy after the war. After all, culture affects the economic content. It is a magnet for talents and visitors to the community, a platform for interaction between the sectors of the economy.”
He also referred to such a significant tool as cultural maps: “An effective instrument for developing local and regional development programmes is a cultural map, which is created on the basis of existing cultural resources. These maps can unite the public in projects that will promote social harmony and transitional justice, which is a prerequisite for civil peace in post-war and post-conflict societies.”
Yaroslava Vashchenko highlighted the importance of preserving cultural heritage: “If no cultural heritage exists, it will be extremely difficult for us to recover from the war. It provides Ukrainians with an understanding of who we are and where we come from. We are investing in our statehood. However, in order to use cultural heritage as a community resource, it needs to be preserved.”
She also pointed out that “the space should be complementary to Ukrainian independence and the European choice of our people. Yet our emblematic space is still largely post-Soviet. At this point, it is possible to remove objects that have an imperial, totalitarian burden from the monument registers.”
According to Valentyna Demian, we need to use any means to draw attention to ourselves and to Ukraine, especially during the war. “If we do not talk about our intangible heritage, we will lose a great deal of instruments in this war. The primary role in preserving intangible heritage is played by its bearers, and researchers have no right to neglect the opinion of the community,” she stated.
British playwright Chris Baldwin shared the experience of communities in the UK: “In communities, we practice ‘creative theatre’, involving residents, ordinary people. During the opening of the European Capitals of Culture, we put on big productions about the importance of dialogue, culture and hope. But in order to produce such a performance, we first come to the community, learn different stories from the locals, as we want to uncover the unique history of the locality from the inhabitants.”
Day Two
The second day of the “Economy Grows Through Culture” course was packed with gifts: intellectual, aesthetic and delicious. The following experts were there to share their experience: Alisa Sviatyna, a Restoration technologist; Halyna Klympush, Chief specialist of the Economic Development and Tourism Department of the Yasinia Village Council; Vladyslava Rishko, Head of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Sector of the Folk art and Amateur Art Department of the Municipal Institution “Regional Organisational and Methodological Centre of Culture” of the Zakarpattia Regional Council; Veronika Chyzhevska, Director of the Centre “Borderland: Arts, Cultures, Peoples” in Sejny city (Poland); Valentyna Vitos, Director of the Odesa Regional Centre of Ukrainian Culture; Oksana Humeniuk, Head of the NGO “Around Us. UA”; Oleksandr Butsenko, Director of the “Democracy Through Culture” Development Centre, and Valentyna Demian, Head of the Expert Council on Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
Representatives of different communities jointly learnt how to map cultural resources, explored how culture works for the benefit of the economy in the communities of Odesa and Prykarpattia, as well as in the Polish city of Sejny, and studied the possibilities of restoring immovable cultural heritage and financing it.
The organisers treated the participants and guests of the event to traditional food and drinks of the Bohuslavshchyna and Odesa region. At the end of the day, each participant was presented with a remarkably beautiful book “Folk Calendar of Bohuslavshchyna”, created by Olena Chebaniuk and Oksana Humeniuk during the “Around Us. UA” expeditions, and demonstrated old folk costumes and accessories recreated from old photographs and museum exhibits. Another pleasant treat was a concert by bandura player Danylo Nosko.
Here are some interesting quotations from the second day of the course: “By destroying our cultural heritage, Russians are destroying the evidence of our belonging to a certain nation.” (Alisa Sviatyna)
“The generation that contributed to our record of the history of the region, has already passed away. Now it is our responsibility to them: to preserve and to pass this history on to the next generations.” (Veronika Chyzhevska)
“Odesa region is home to 130 nationalities, and the indigenous peoples here have preserved their cultural diversity. However, they do not ‘conserve’ it, they let it develop in a joint community.” (Valentyna Vitos)
“If you tell me how you celebrate the holidays, I will tell you who you are. Our identity is evidenced by the festivities that are meaningful to us. In the Bohuslav region [Bohuslavshchyna], many traditions of Christmas celebrations are still alive and well-remembered. St Andrew’s evenings are very common here: people used to dress up and craft masks. And there is still a tradition of trampling on the cowslip. People worship their deceased ancestors. The connection between grandparents and grandchildren is important.” (folklore researcher Olena Chebaniuk)
“We need to move forward in collecting folklore because in another 5 years, there will be no one left to learn from.” (Volodymyr Shchybria, Director of the Centre for Folklore and Ethnography, Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)
Day Three
The third day of the “Economy Growth Through Culture” course was rich in discoveries about well-known cultural projects.
The success stories were shared by Bohdan Logvynenko, founder of the Ukraїner community; Khrystyna Kundyra, Head of Fundraising; Liudmyla Basko, Head of the Culture and Tourism Department of the Kodyma City Council; Roman Malenkov, Head of the NGO Ukraine Incognita; Andrii Yarovyi, Technical Director of the NGO Ukraine Incognita; Oksana Shtanko, Head of the Scientific and Exhibition Department of the Museum Space “Okolnyi Zamok”, Municipal Enterprise “Tourism Development Centre” (Lutsk); and Yurii Hladenko, Director of the Department of Culture, Tourism and Religions of the Sumy Regional State Administration.
Here are some quotations from their speeches:
“Speaking of the importance of culture in times of war… The year before we made a video about how Shchedryk changed attitudes towards Ukraine. A century ago, the Oleksandr Koshyts Choir was one of our greatest ambassadors, and although Ukraine did not win then, our subjectivity was imprinted in the minds of many people around the world.” (Bohdan Logvynenko on the significance of culture in times of war and the Ukraїner project)
“Cemeteries as objects of historical memory are essential. In fact, this is the cultural hygiene of the country. If you can’t take care of cemeteries, can you take care of anything at all?” (Roman Malenkov on the “Ancient Cemeteries of Ukraine”, project by NGO Ukraine Incognita)
“The war will lead to more demand for adaptive tourism, as the number of people who have lost limbs will increase. Adaptive tourism provides access to tourist destinations and services for all sightseers or tourists, including those with various disabilities. This allows all citizens to continue to be active members of society, to enjoy travelling and leisure without any physical barriers and restrictions, and to achieve psycho-emotional relief.” (Yurii Hladenko on art therapy and adaptive tourism in communities as a means of non-medical rehabilitation)
Iryna Bilan, Head of the Fundraising Department at the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, shared the secrets of attracting additional funds for cultural projects. In particular, she advises: “In a grant project, you need to clearly define the idea (what exactly do you want to do?), the beneficiaries (who benefits from the project, do they actually need it, how will we involve them in the project), the goals and objectives of the project, the team and partners (what are the roles and responsibilities, the internal team and external experts), the stages of project implementation, communication (promotion) of the project, expected results and expected risks.
Additionally, at the event, the Bohuslav Volunteer Headquarters raised UAH 1340 for the needs of our servicemen. We sincerely appreciate the contributions! We will report on the funds distribution on the headquarters’ website.
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all the participants of the three-day course!
Please find more photos from this event in our photo report.
You are also welcome to watch lectures by our speakers in the Video Lectures room.
