UCI celebrates 75th Anniversary of Lyubov Minenko

UCI at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale: Supporting Ukrainian Cultural Resilience  

The Ukrainian Cultural Initiative (UCI) is proud to have supported the public programming and opening events of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 2025 International Venice Architecture Biennale—one of the most prestigious gatherings in the global architecture and art worlds. The Biennale serves as a key arena for cultural diplomacy, attracting influential architects, curators, policymakers, and thought leaders from around the globe. National pavilions offer countries a powerful platform to share their cultural narratives; this year, Ukraine’s Pavilion stood out as a testament to wartime resilience and cultural vitality.

Weeks before the Pavilion’s debut, the curatorial team—comprising Ukrainian, British, and Polish architects and scholars—faced an unexpected budget shortfall. The UCI provided a timely emergency grant, enabling the team to cover critical last-minute expenses and successfully launch the exhibition. The curators expressed deep gratitude for UCI’s pivotal support.

UCI President Vladislav Shapiro and renown journalist and our partner Vladislav Davidzon attended the opening events in Venice, engaging with the curators and key participants across the Biennale. These meetings fostered meaningful relationships with leading Ukrainian cultural figures and emerging architects, including Pavilion co-curators Michał Murawski (King’s College London) and Kateryna Rusetksa (Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture). The UCI delegation also met with Bogdana Kosmina and Oksana Kosmin, creators of an AI project honoring their ethnologist grandmother, and discussed future collaborations with Tetyana Filevska, with Ukrainian political scientist Yulia Yurchenko and Ada Wordsworth, head of reconstruction NGO KHAARP.

The UCI was prominently recognized in the Pavilion’s printed materials and official website, significantly raising its profile among Ukrainian and international cultural professionals. Discussions are underway to co-sponsor upcoming September conferences in Kyiv and Venice, and to adapt elements of the Venice program for American and Ukrainian audiences.

Additionally, UCI engaged with the Ukrainian curators of major reconstruction-focused projects featured in the French Pavilion and Venice’s main Biennale program, including “Circularity on the Edge.” These projects, centered on Ukraine’s post-war rebuilding, represent promising opportunities for collaboration and U.S. public engagement.

Looking ahead, UCI is preparing to sponsor and participate in a major international conference on Ukrainian cultural heritage preservation in September 2025. These efforts underscore UCI’s long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine’s cultural voice on the global stage.

by Vladislav Davidzon & Nataliya Proskura

With gratitude to our true friends and people who are supporting Ukraine, we are sharing this great news! 

The film report about the Ukrainian art exhibition "Affirmation of Life. Art from Today's Ukraine" in Bedford, MA, filmed by Bedford TV, received the award “Most Impactful Video of the Year 2024”! The award event took place on December 7, 2024. We are very grateful to the organizers of the exhibition, First Parish in Bedford, The Gallery @ First Parish, Bedford TV and to everyone who made the decision to express support for Ukraine.

Bedford TV is a charitable organization that support different initiatives, is known for becoming an oasis of joy for the students, a place where you can learn how to prepare for filming, make documentaries and even feature films. When we approached Bedford TV about the possibility of doing a video about our exhibition, Brian and the team gladly responded. You can see the full report from the exhibition, if you follow the link little lower. If you follow the link here, you will see the 36th minute of the video about the exhibition and award. Please watch the whole movie to see what wonderful things people can do when they fill the world with Goodness!