Report on the Condition of Culture

Center  hosted an open discussion with the authors of the Report on the Condition of Culture, prepared by our Polish colleagues, the Open Culture Foundation, the Kultura Enter periodical and foundation, the Krytyka periodical (Kyiv), the Culture Workshops Lublin, and the Management Initiatives Foundation. Financial support for the undertaking was lent by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. This is the second of seven reports, presenting the development of the public sector and culture in Eastern Partnership states. The first issue was published in 2011 and dealt with Belarus. Future issues will deal with Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Russian Federation.

In the Report, experts on the subject examine the condition of culture, alternative culture, and NGOs in Ukraine. This is an attempt to show their current state, taking into account the European context, and internal factors. The Report offers diagnoses of phenomena like the publishing market, literature, cinema, the music scene, art as such, cultural infrastructure, the media, civil society, human rights, education, and the legal climate in which Ukrainian NGOs and culture function.

The Report on the Condition of Culture and NGOs in Ukraine is a sui generis, sometimes personal guide to the culture and NGO sector, comprising articles, analyses, report and interview excerpts by famous experts and practitioners in these fields. The overwhelming majority of the authors are Ukrainian. They have attempted to answer three questions: What is the present state of affairs? What do we expect of ourselves? And How can we achieve it?