HELPFUL EXPERIENCE: HOW TO IDENTIFY WEAKNESSES IN CULTURE

Ukrainian activists have launched the Culture 2025 Initiative, within the framework of which they formed “tree of issues” of the country’s cultural development.

Over 400 people, from eight Ukrainian cities, participated in these strategy sessions. Through effective communication and discussions, the participants created the so-called trees, defining and grouping in them the particular issues of Ukrainian culture. Thus, experts identified weaknesses in six fields: management, communication, infrastructure, legislation, finances, and education.

The key management issue, according to them, is the lack of experience in decision-making area and insufficient human resources of skilled personnel in the cultural sector. The educational system was declared to be outdated and in an acute need of improvement. Funding organization suffers from dysfunction of the system of national (local) finances and lack of resources and opportunities for sustainable operations of cultural institutions. In the legislative field, in the experts’ opinion, the legal framework is “limping” heavily, because of its “alienation” from the quotidian cultural issues. Communication in Ukrainian culture, according to the aforementioned “tree of issues”, requires great improvement as well, due to its weakness and unproductiveness. Thereof, the infrastructure is handicapped by its ineffective and inefficient use.

For each of the cultural areas, the participants of the Culture 2025 Initiative, not only defined the issues’ causes, but also predicted the consequences for the system’s misuse.

The next step and the ultimate goal of the project, will be designing the strategies, which would help to resolve the existing problems, and become a basis for the future long-term cultural policies in Ukraine.

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