The United Kingdom will provide £800,000 for a Cultural Heritage Programme under the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Agreement.
The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine reported this.
During the inaugural meeting of the programme’s Advisory Board in London, the partners also announced its first pilot project — a partnership with the Taras Shevchenko National Museum aimed at preserving historic photographic collections and developing the professional skills of Ukrainian conservators.
The Advisory Board was established to provide strategic guidance for the Cultural Heritage Programme, which is being implemented by Historic England from 2025 to 2029 under the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Agreement.
The programme is funded by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which has allocated £800,000 for its implementation. The Advisory Board includes representatives of Historic England, DCMS and the British Council on the UK side, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, the Ukrainian Institute and the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Foundation on the Ukrainian side. The board is chaired by Historic England Chairman Lord Neil Mendoza.
The programme aims to promote educational exchanges, professional skills and institutional capacity among specialists working to protect, preserve and restore Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
The inaugural meeting of the Advisory Board took place on September 14 at Historic England’s office in London. Participants included Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna and Deputy Minister of Culture Tetiana Filevska.
The British side was represented by Lord Neil Mendoza, representatives of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the British Council and other UK institutions involved in developing Ukrainian-British cooperation in the field of cultural heritage.
Berezhna thanked the British partners for their support for Ukraine and stressed the importance of long-term cooperation on cultural heritage.
“Ukraine’s cultural heritage is under threat every day because of Russian aggression, and protecting it requires both urgent measures and long-term investment. Through the 100 Year Partnership, we are bringing together British and Ukrainian expertise to preserve collections, strengthen professional capacity and prepare for future reconstruction. I am grateful to Historic England and the UK government for supporting Ukraine in protecting its culture and historical memory, which Russia is trying to destroy,” Berezhna said.
Mendoza stressed the UK’s commitment to working with Ukrainian partners to protect cultural heritage.
“We were delighted to welcome Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna to launch the Cultural Heritage Programme under the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Agreement. Russia is intensifying its deliberate attacks on museums and cultural heritage. We are firmly committed to working with our Ukrainian colleagues to ensure that Ukraine’s heritage is protected, preserved and restored,” Mendoza said.
The programme’s first pilot project will be a partnership with the Taras Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv. It will focus on preserving historic photographic materials from the museum’s collection and developing specialised skills among Ukrainian professionals.
The project will consist of three stages:
- restoration of unique photographs of Taras Shevchenko taken during his lifetime and held by the museum;
- training Ukrainian conservators in the UK so that they can work with such materials in Ukraine and pass their knowledge on to colleagues. Ukraine currently has very few specialists in photographic conservation, and British expertise will help develop this capacity;
- an exhibition of Taras Shevchenko’s works in the UK, presenting him as one of the key figures of Ukrainian culture.
The Advisory Board will provide strategic recommendations on programme priorities, partnerships, project proposals and professional capacity-building initiatives. Its work is intended to ensure that the positions and needs of both Ukraine and the UK are taken into account while promoting knowledge exchange and the development of new joint initiatives.
The Advisory Board will meet every six months until the programme’s planned completion in March 2029. Its work will also be supported by a broader network of cultural heritage professionals and representatives from Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
