UK allocates £800,000 to protect Ukrainian heritage under 100 Year Partnership Agreement

Ukraine and the UK have launched a joint programme to protect and preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage. The British government has allocated £800,000 (over US$1 million) to implement it.

Source: Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, following the inaugural meeting of the programme's Advisory Council in London

Details: The programme will run until 2029. It involves the exchange of expertise, training for Ukrainian specialists and joint projects in the field of cultural heritage preservation. It will be delivered by the British organisation Historic England, funded by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The programme's first project will be a collaboration with the Taras Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv. British and Ukrainian specialists will work on preserving historical photographs from the museum's collection.

Plans include restoring photographs of Taras Shevchenko taken during his lifetime, which are held at the museum. Ukrainian conservators will also undergo training in the UK, so they can go on to work with such materials in Ukraine and pass on their knowledge to other specialists.

The Ministry of Culture reported that Ukraine currently has almost no specialists working in photograph restoration. Developing this specialisation will therefore be one of the project's goals.

An exhibition of Taras Shevchenko's work is also planned to be organised in the UK as part of the partnership.

The British side in the programme is represented by Historic England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the British Council. Ukraine's representatives on the Advisory Council include officials from the Ministry of Culture, the Ukrainian Institute and the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The council will meet twice a year until the advisory period concludes in March 2029. Its members will set priorities for joint work and consider new projects in the field of cultural heritage.

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