On April 11 the Ukrainian Culture Foundation, a non-governmental charitable organization, headed by the well-known poet and public figure Borys Oliinyk, celebrated the 25th anniversary of the foundation. Is it a long or a short time? From the angle of eternity, it is, of course, just a blink of an eye. From the angle of a human lifetime, it is a considerable time span. But if you take into account that we have seen not only the change of a political system but also the birth of a new planet called Ukraine, that we have crossed the threshold into a new millennium, and if you sum it all up, then these 25 years, full of so many never-forgettable events, are worth a whole century. The Day asked Mr. Oliinyk: “What do you think are the major achievements of this period if we briefly sum up what has been done in the sphere of national culture revival?”
“I think what can be considered the Ukrainian Culture Foundation’s substantial gains in the past few years is its long-term culturological programs aimed at encouraging the broad strata of the population to preserve the Ukrainian people’s culture and art heritage,” Mr. Oliinyk emphasized. “Let me name just a few of them: ‘Memory,’ ‘Area Studies,’ ‘Toponymy,’ ‘Folk Songs and Folklore,’ ‘Mother Tongue,’ ‘Taras Shevchenko.’ As part of each of these programs, we hold a large number of art soirees, concerts, theatrical shows, scholarly conferences, painting and folk art exhibits. I will remind you that in 1987, when the ‘Mother Tongue’ program began to be carried out, we founded the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society which was later transformed into the all-Ukrainian Prosvita society currently chaired by the poet and MP Pavlo Movchan. Another program, ‘Taras Shevchenko,’ is aimed at encouraging people to study and popularize the Great Bard’s creative legacy, as well as preserve the memorable places associated with his name. The Ukrainian Culture Foundation has also played a role in the erection of monuments to Shevchenko in such cities as Bila Tserkva, Lviv, and Saint Petersburg. I cannot but mention our youth-oriented program ‘The New Names of Ukraine’ which helped financial, organizational, and creative support to be given to talented young people. And, finally, I would like to mention the program ‘Comeback.’ The name itself suggests that it is about the return to Ukraine of the cultural and historic valuables that, for various reasons, have found themselves outside this country. Over the past few years, museum repositories and picture galleries have acquired some more paintings by Taras Shevchenko, Ilya Repin, Ivan Trush, Vasyl Kasiian, Dmytro Levytsky, Oleksandr Arkhypenko, and others. So we can continue to enumerate our charitable actions, but it is not the main thing. What really matters to us is the way the public appreciates the work the Ukrainian Culture Foundation is doing almost free of charge, mostly on sheer enthusiasm, but with an unshakable belief in a better future of our people.”
