Restoration work on the building housing the Lviv Cultural Hub. Ukraine: UNESCO chief visits Lviv Culture and education
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay visited Ukraine. During the visit, she took part in the opening of the Lviv Cultural Hub and supported efforts to restore cultural monuments damaged by military action.
Historic Lviv
Lviv is a historical and cultural center, the unique architecture of which reflects the influence of various movements. It is called the “pearl of Ukrainian urban development.” Over the past three years, many Ukrainian artists and art figures have found refuge in Lviv, located in western Ukraine, far from the front line.
Cultural Hub
The Lviv Cultural Hub, created by UNESCO, is not just a cultural center, but a meeting place and a place for the exchange of ideas for all those involved in culture throughout Ukraine. Seminars, conferences, and exhibitions will be held here. It is also planned to create an art therapy and cultural therapy program for war-affected residents of Ukraine.
The center is located in a historic building that was renovated with the support of UNESCO. Spain took on the financing of the project, having allocated 1.7 million dollars for these purposes. The center will be managed by the Lviv City Hall.
New Initiatives
During her visit to Lviv, Audrey Azoulay announced two additional UNESCO initiatives – the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage and the restoration of three hundred works by Ukrainian female artists.
The first project is being implemented in partnership with 10 cultural institutions in the country with financial support from the European Union. As part of the $2.2 million program, UNESCO will train 50 cultural specialists in the inventory, preservation and digitization of historical documents related to Jewish cultural heritage. UNESCO will also support thematic art projects.
As part of the second campaign, announced during the Director-General’s visit, about 300 works by 50 Ukrainian female artists will be digitized and exhibited in virtual museums. This project is intended as a tribute to the Ukrainian artist Maria Primachenko, whose museum dedicated to her life’s work was destroyed at the beginning of the war in Ivankov.
UNESCO Support
Since 2022, UNESCO has been making efforts to support Ukrainian culture. For these purposes, the organization’s member states have allocated almost 74 million dollars.
The UNESCO office in Kyiv, which opened in September 2022, currently employs more than 35 experts. They assess damage to cultural heritage sites, ensure the preservation of museum collections, restore monuments, organize distance learning for specialists, provide psychosocial support to students, and train and equip journalists.
Lviv has long had close ties with UNESCO. In 1998, its historic center was included in the World Heritage List. In 2015, Lviv became a UNESCO Creative City of Literature, and in 2024 – a UNESCO Learning City.