Sumy’s artists are more and more actively taking a patriotic stand. A new art platform was opened recently in the city on the premises of the Ukrainian Banking Academy (UABS). Although it is not the first cultural and charitable project for the UABS, it is very important not only to this educational institution, but also for the city. The exhibition hall “Philanthropist,” which has the motto “To People with Love,” will enable artists to display their works and visitors to feast their eyes on them and dispense charity. Each of the exhibited pictures can be bought, and organizers will use 10 to 20 percent of its value for charitable purposes. Helping the Ukrainian army is a top priority now. Elvira Mamontova, chief of the project section of the Sumy Municipal Gallery, a part of the Sumy Promotion Agency, comments: “Opening such an exhibition hall as “Philanthropist” is extremely important to our city because this pursues two very important goals: to help artists market their works, and to promote art patronage.”
The first exposition of about 50 artworks is titled “The Sumy Region on Canvases.” It comprises landscapes of Sumy and other nooks of the region. What unites different artists and different painting techniques is the inimitable motifs and spirit of Sloboda Ukraine. The authors are artists of the Sumy oblast branch of the National League of Ukrainian Artists: Ihor Shvachunov, Ihor Vasylevsky, Mykola Zhulinsky, Illia Yarovy, Yulia Alieshchenko, Hanna Serheieva, Mykola Yarovy, Ivan Hapochenko, Iryna Protsenko, Ivan Shapoval, Semen Yarovy, Oleksandr Sadovsky, et al.
“The new exhibition hall is housed in a scientific library. Therefore, we have combined interest in books and interest in art,” UABS research associate and project manager Serhii Tykhenko says. In his words, the project includes holding regular exhibits of both well-known and young authors. “We have a lot of masterpieces to which audiences have little access. For example, it is no secret that the Sumy Art Museum’s repositories hold a lot of pictures which very few people have seen,” Tykhenko says. “The current good tendency in Sumy is that there are several art galleries, though it is premature to speak about competition. We are going to hold various events in our exhibition hall whose distinguishing feature is that it will be aimed at charity and art patronage.”
Incidentally, thanks to the patriotic and charitable initiatives of students, teachers, and researchers, the academy became in 2014 a center of goodness and mutual help in this difficult period of time.
Serhii Piatachenko, member of the National League of Ukrainian Writers, chief of the young people’s literary studio Orpheus, comments: “Sumy is a city of art. Artists, poets, and musicians have always found it easy to work here. But it was not always easy to find a way to the heart of the spectator, reader, or listener. So, I hope the new gallery will become an adequate and sought-after platform for Sumy’s masters of the paintbrush and the palette knife. Today, the number of galleries clearly does not correspond to that of local artists. Besides, new platforms may provide impetus to the so far undisclosed talents. The gallery organizers have already invited my students and me to hold a poetry soiree the theme of which would be in harmony with the current exhibition of works about Sumy. So, I think the new gallery is destined to be not only a spot where artists and audiences can meet – other Muses will also find a place there.”
