Rebuilding Ukraine: Kyiv Art Session festival in UK aims to fund Ukraine’s restoration

The Ukrainian art festival "Kyiv Art Session" will be held in the UK from January 25 to February 2. The event aims to highlight the need for restoring Ukraine's critical infrastructure damaged by Russian aggression and to raise funds for these efforts.

The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications and NV reported this.

Visitors can expect:

• An exclusive exhibition of works of art.
• Concerts of Ukrainian music with the participation of director and musician Serhii Fomenko.
• Screening of the documentary film "People of Steel", which tells about the heroic defense of Mariupol, the struggle for freedom of the defenders of Azovstal and their families.
• Public discussions on Ukrainian culture, war and restoration.

^{Photo: Facebook page of The War Fragments Museum}

One of the festival's key events will be an auction and exhibition-sale of art by Ukrainian artists, featuring:

• Oleksandr Dubovyk, Hanna Kryvolap, Olena Ryzhyk, and Oleksii Beliusenko, renowned for their significant contributions to contemporary art.
• Young talented artists showcased in the large-scale project "Echoes and Visions."
• Serhii Mykhalchuk, a director and photographer, and Silver Bear winner at the Berlin Film Festival, presenting his unique art photographs.
• Exhibits from The War Fragments Museum featuring war artifacts encased in transparent cubes, symbolizing the festival.

^{Photographs by Serhii Mykhalchuk, director, photographer, winner of the Silver Bear. Photo: Ukrainian Cultural Center Dom Master Class}

"It is important to present our diverse and rich culture abroad – systematically, strategically, with important accents for us, but without speculating on the war. Regular festivals of Ukrainian high art in the UK with various powerful programs in the presence of cultural figures themselves, we believe, greatly strengthen Ukrainian cultural diplomacy," Iryna Budanska, one of the initiators of Kyiv Art Sessions in London, founder of the Dom Master Class cultural center, co-founder of the Bouquet Kyiv Stage festival, emphasized.

The festival will also include a screening of the documentary "Men of Steel", dedicated to the heroic defense of Mariupol, the struggle of Ukrainian defenders and their families for liberation from captivity.

The film highlights the sacrifice of Ukrainian defenders, the trials faced by prisoners of war, and the urgent need for international attention for their release.

"The main goal of the film is to ensure that people who are still in captivity are released and not left without public attention," the film's director, Serhii Fomenko, stressed.

The winter season of the festival also includes discussions dedicated to:

• The role of culture during war.
• Ukrainian cultural diplomacy as a tool of international support.
• Ukrainian and British historians, art critics, artists, and cultural figures will take part in the discussions.

Venues

• Cambridge:

January 31 at 6:00 p.m. — Downing Church (4 Downing Pl., CB2 3EL).

Admission is free.

• Oxford:

January 30 at 4:00p.m.— Oxford University, St. Antony's College, Lecture Theatre, Investcorp Building (62 Woodstock Rd., OX2 6JF).

Free admission.

• London:

February 1 and 2 — Knotel at The Old Sessions House (23 Clerkenwell Grn, EC1R 0NA).

Limited seats, advance booking required.

The Kyiv Art Sessions charity festival, held at the Old Sessions House in London, is organized by the Ukrainian cultural center Dom Master Class in collaboration with Art Shield, an international charity that supports and empowers artists worldwide, particularly those facing censorship, oppression, or war. The festival's partners also include Subjektiv, Knotel, and the Association "Promoting the Development of Cinema in Ukraine — Watch Ukrainian!"

You may book your place via the provided link and obtain further information about the event through the link.

For reference:

It should be noted that the exhibition "Oleksii Shovkunenko. Kherson – Kyiv" has commenced at the National Museum "Kyiv Art Gallery." This exhibition offers visitors an introduction to the work of the distinguished Ukrainian artist of the 20th century. The digital exhibition showcases 149 of the artist's works that were taken by Russian forces from the Kherson Regional Art Museum.