Paris, 9 June 2022 – UNESCO is launching a scheme to support Ukrainian women artists who have had to flee their country because of the war, in partnership with the NGO Perpetuum Mobile. It will enable them and their children to be hosted and cared for by a cultural institution in the country where they have found refuge.
“The war has driven millions of Ukrainians into exile, the vast majority of whom are women and children. Among these people, women artists who have been forced to suspend their creative activities often lack material and financial resources to resume their work in their host country,” says Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s Director-General.
For this reason, UNESCO decided to launch a programme dedicated to Ukrainian women artists in exile, born of a partnership with the NGO Perpetuum Mobile, initiator of the Artists at Risk platform, which brings together cultural institutions in over 15 countries.
Audrey Azoulay
The artists concerned will be supported for a minimum of three months by a cultural institution in their host country.
They will be taken care of with their children in artistic residencies, and will benefit from support in terms of networking, visibility and the conception of new cultural projects.
(Left) Ukraine electro-pop duo Bloom Twins: “It has really affected us,” said singer Anna Kuprienko. “We’re talking to our family, we have a lot of friends and our second manager living there. We go back to the Ukraine quite a lot. We were only there two months ago. We were hopeful that this situation with Russia wouldn’t go where it has and that it would resolve.” (Right) Ukraine singer Khrystyna Soloviy : “We are a generation that has never seen the Soviet Union and was born in a free Ukraine. Ukrainians are not Russians, as said by the Russian government. We have a difficult, depressed history of Russian colonisation.”
The scheme will aim to provide them with the means to become autonomous by the end of their hosting period, whether they then choose to return to live in Ukraine or to settle permanently in their host country. UNESCO has already set aside $140,000 usd (about $177,000 cad at time of this publication) to finance the scheme, which should initially benefit some 30 artists and their children.
A new link in UNESCO’s emergency response
The programme complements the range of emergency measures already deployed by UNESCO since the beginning of the war to safeguard tangible and intangible cultural heritage, secure museum collections and combat illicit trafficking in cultural property.
UNESCO partner Freemuse
Moreover, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, UNESCO has been monitoring the situation of artists in close consultation with artists’ networks and cultural actors in the country. This work is also carried out in coordination with international organizations involved in supporting artists at risk: PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection, Perpetuum Mobile/Artists at Risk, ICORN, Freemuse, Prince Claus Fund and the PAUSE programme. For the Silo, Lucía Iglesias Kuntz, UNESCO Press Service.
Featured image: Face of War (Putin in bullets) co-created by Daria Marchenko, 35 now exiled Ukraine woman artist.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July—The city of Fuzhou (China) will host the next session of the World Heritage Committee in 2020. This decision concluded the work of the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee, meeting in Baku since 30 June.
During this year’s session, the World Heritage Committee inscribed a total of 29 new sites on the World Heritage List (one in Africa, two in the Arab States, ten in the Asia Pacific region, 15 in Europe and North America including Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada and one in Latin America).
The World Heritage List now features 1,121 sites in 167 countries.
The
Committee approved the removal from the List of World Heritage in
Danger of the sites of Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
(Chile) and Birthplace of Jesus: the Church of the Nativity and
Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem (Palestine). One property has been added to
the List of World Heritage in Danger: the Islands and Protected Areas of
the Gulf of California (Mexico).
This
session reaffirmed the potential of heritage in strengthening
cooperation between States, with the inscription of the transboundary
site of the Erzgebirge Mining Region/Krušnohoří (shared by Germany and
Czechia) and the extension into Albania of the natural and cultural
heritage site of the Ohrid Region (Northern Macedonia).
Cooperation and mediation work on heritage also allowed for consensus on decisions regarding the Middle East thanks to constructive discussion with the delegations concerned, notably Israel, Jordan and Palestine.
Several
major archaeological sites were added to the List, including the Dilmun
Burial Mounds (Bahrain), the Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of
Burkina Faso and the iconic site of Babylon (Iraq), once the centre of
the Neo-Babylonian Empire and site of the Hanging Gardens, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which have inspired artistic,
popular and religious culture worldwide.
The
inscription of Babylon, combined with significant investment by Iraq,
contributes to UNESCO’s efforts to rebuild the country and its flagship
Reviving the Spirit of Mosul initiative.
Sites
essential for the preservation of global biodiversity have also been
inscribed. They include the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast
of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) (China) and the site of the
French Austral Lands and Seas (France) with a record surface area of
over 67 million hectares that is home to one of the highest
concentrations of birds and marine mammals in the world.
Finally, the inscription of the sites of Budj Bim Cultural Landscape within Australia’s Gundijmara Aboriginal region, and of Canada’s Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi, a sacred landscape of the Blackfoot (Siksikáítsitapi) people, recognizes the knowledge of indigenous peoples, essential for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage.
Significant
efforts are still needed to enhance and preserve African heritage,
which remains largely under-represented on the List. UNESCO also renewed
its call for unflagging rigour, integrity and responsibility in the
examination of nominations so as to ensure the credibility of the World
Heritage Convention and its future standing.
The new natural sites are:
Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) (China)
French Austral Lands and Seas (France)
Vatnajökull National Park – dynamic nature of fire and ice (Iceland)
Hyrcanian Forests (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Mixed site:
Paraty and Ilha Grande – Culture and Biodiversity (Brazil)
Cultural sites:
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (Australia)
Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace (Azerbaijan)
Dilmun Burial Mounds (Bahrain)
Ancient ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso (Burkina Faso)
Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi (Canada)
Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City (China)
Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem (Czechia)
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region (Czechia, Germany)
Water Management System of Augsburg (Germany)
Jaipur City, Rajasthan (India)
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto (Indonesia)
Babylon (Iraq)
Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene (Italy)
Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan (Japan)
Bagan (Myanmar)
Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang – Plain of Jars (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)
Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region (Poland)
Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga (Portugal)
Royal Building of Mafra – Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park (Tapada) (Portugal)
Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies (Republic of Korea)
Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture (Russian Federation)
Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape (Spain)
Jodrell Bank Observatory (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
