On Ukrainian Statehood Day, the Donetsk Regional Art Museum held an online webinar entitled “Art Projects in the Context of the Struggle to Preserve National Identity.” The webinar brought together scientific institutions and museums of Ukraine, as well as art institutions and communities of the Donetsk region, to promote and preserve intangible cultural heritage.
This is extremely relevant in the context of military aggression against Ukraine, because the roots of the state are its people and their millennia-old traditions. Therefore, the current war is not only a struggle for the future of our state, but also for the right of Ukrainians to their own history and identity.
The event featured a presentation and discussion of the cultural and artistic project “Ukrainian Identity Through the Prism of Folk Customs and Rituals.” Olga Nikolaienko, professor at the Department of Ukrainian History at the H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, revealed the significance of rituals as carriers of folk memory and the importance of passing on ritual culture from generation to generation in her report.
Museum staff conducted an art analysis of the works submitted as part of the project and presented an online exhibition featuring more than 100 works by students of art schools and art studios in the Donetsk region. These young artists are the future creative elite of Donetsk. It is up to them to preserve and multiply our cultural heritage for the sake of the preservation and prosperity of our state. The best works, which represent the traditions of the Ukrainian people, will be published in the art calendar “Ukrainian Folk Holidays and Traditions” and will also be added to the collection of the Donetsk Regional Art Museum.
The webinar became a platform for meaningful dialogue: how art helps to maintain the internal front, how folk traditions are transformed into symbols of resistance, and children's drawings into a form of national memory.