Educational Activities and Services for Ukrainian Citizens

A dedicated team of six Ukrainian lecturers has been formed to deliver these programmes, primarily focusing on guided tours of buildings, exhibitions, and sculptures in public spaces, as well as on hosting art workshops. The Education Department also occasionally collaborates with Ukrainian artists, for example, through activities such as music presentations, literary readings (at the international Art Book Fair and other events), folk art displays, and customs and traditions like Ukrainian Easter and Christmas, the poet Taras Shevchenko commemoration, creation of traditional Ukrainian motanka dolls, presentation of a book on Ukrainian embroidery, folk dances, Petrykivka painting, etc.). Annually, there are around 300 events for visitors from Ukraine (according to the data from 2023). For example, within the Art Book Fair, the Education Department invited respected Ukrainian writers and artists – winners of many important awards for literature (Olha Chaplya, Olha Kuzhdina, Vitaliia Hrytsak, Anna Pavlichenko, Kateryna Chornomorets, Nataliia Melnyk, Viktoria Mashchenko, Iryna Ozymok), who presented their children’s books and art works. Occasionally, there are also specific Interconnecting Cultures programmes with children’s writer Olena Lan + artist Viktoria Mashchenko and online workshops for children from Ukraine – online broadcasts to Ukraine or other countries abroad where children now live. Countries to which successful broadcasts have already been made include: Ukraine (Kiev, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk province, Berdyansk, Kamianske, Kryvyi Rih, Chaplino, Dnipro, Lviv, Kherson), Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Georgia, Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, etc. Online broadcasts have already been made not only to schools, but also to Ukrainian libraries (to about 26 libraries for approx. 400 children).

Photogallery from educational programs

Special events were also Light for Ukraine (a programme to commemorate the beginning of the war in Ukraine), outdoor art workshops for the exhibition of artists from Ukraine at the Vault 17 gallery on the Smíchov embankment, and the celebration of the UN World Children’s Day (20 Nov 2023) in cooperation with UNICEF at the Stone Bell House, which included an exhibition of works by Ukrainian children from the GHMP workshops, a presentation of photographs and videos from the workshops and events, a concert by Ukrainian children and a debate between students and the Government Commissioner for Human Rights, National Coordinator for the Adaptation and Integration of Refugees from Ukraine and Deputy Minister for European Affairs Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková. The GHMP’s Education Centre boasts a small library housing publications on visual arts in Ukrainian. In addition to special programmes, visitors from Ukraine are naturally integrated to a large extent into regular workshops and events for the public (for example, Saturday art workshops or Summer Art Workshops in the GHMP’s Eco-studio), and Ukrainian children are integrated in almost every regular Czech classroom. The summer suburban camps for Ukrainian children, which are held extensively throughout the summer at the Troja Château, are also very successful. The importance of the topic of support for Ukraine is also illustrated by the extraordinary press conference the Prague Municipal Office held on 1 Sept 2023 at the Stone Bell House, where activities for the integration of people from Ukraine and other foreigners supported by Prague Municipal Office’s and UNICEF grants were outlined. The press conference was attended by the Councillor for Culture, the Director of the Department of Culture of the Prague Municipal Office and the leadership of UNICEF Europe and Central Asia in the Czech Republic, as well as other UNICEF representatives. Members of the key media outlets were also present: Czech Television, Czech Radio, CTK news agency, TV Prague, etc.