Civic sector experts envisage the importance of adopingt and holding well-thought, planned and all-embracing cultural policy.
Activists call upon everyone concerned to join the initiative and take pictures against historical buildings and cultural places that are in decline to later post these photos with the hashtag “SOS майбутнє” (“SOS the future”). In such a way, the initiative seeks to create the registry of historical and cultural heritage sites that are under the threat of being destroyed. It was presented by Natalia Zabolotna, civic activist, founder of the Art Ukraine Foundation. “We are indignant due to the fact that the authorities did not introduce the main reform, the cultural sector reform, into the priority list. Social and cultural sectors lie beyond the interests of politicians. The cultural sector reform needs to become the country’s priority. One should not ignore all the cultural civic initiatives that were suggested as a tool to resolve the humanitarian crisis. The country without culture is just a territory,” she noted.
Culture-focused national development model is required to increase Ukraine’s legal capacity as an actor. “Development program needs to be worked out, cultural development needs to be at its basis. It will define the vector for individual development, form social values and identity, affect the interaction between nature and society as well as form the priorities for the country’s authorities,” said Volodymyr Nudelman, professor, academician. “Cultural ecology is no less important for the society than the ecology itself. Ecology defines biological survival. It is also an absolute priority for intellectual, cultural and creative life of a society,” said Hryhoriy Hrabohych, Ukrainian-American literature scholar, professor. According to Roman Balaian, film director, script writer and producer, the power of a country depends on its science, culture and arts more than on its natural resources.