About Ukraine Culture Network
The Ukraine Culture Network (formerly Legato Bern-Odessa) is a non-profit organisation that has been operating in Switzerland for over 20 years.
Originally created through a partnership between the Stolyarsky Special Music School in Odesa and the Bern Conservatory Music School, Legato Bern–Odessa fostered numerous cultural exchanges and lasting friendships. In the wake of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, this partnership has taken on even greater significance.
In addition to launching a “Ukraine Relief Fund” for war victims, an international conference entitled “Renaissance of Arts and Culture in Ukraine, Exemplified by Odesa and the Odesa Region” was successfully held in Bern in 2023. One of the key outcomes of this event was the establishment of the Ukraine Culture Network.
By adopting the name Ukraine Culture Network, we continue to uphold the founding values, proven goals, and successful initiatives of our predecessor organisation. At the same time, we are expanding our scope and mission, ensuring that our work remains as meaningful and impactful as ever in supporting Ukrainian arts, culture, and exchange.
The Ukraine Culture Network pursues the following goals:
- Contributing to the protection of Ukraine’s cultural heritage in Ukraine and abroad;
- Raising the international visibility and awareness of Ukrainian culture, which to date is not sufficiently known;
- Promoting Ukrainian artists and art abroad and contributing to more effective market access for Ukrainian artists in Ukraine’s partner countries;
- Adding support to the development of Ukraine’s educational system
The Ukraine Culture Network intends to operate as a platform aimed at facilitating the connection of Ukrainian artists with cultural institutions, curators, event organizers and sponsors. The main added value and function of the Network is to enable and promote networking opportunities for relevant actors in the field of art and education with a view to implementing projects and initiatives that can be shaped in a broad variety of support formats, such as co-productions, (co-)funding, inclusion of Ukrainian artists into productions, exhibitions and concerts, granting of artist-in-residence positions, “temporary” exile for Ukrainian artists and artifacts, partnerships and exchange of best practices between educational institutions in Ukraine and in partner countries etc.
In its activities, the Ukraine Culture Network is guided by the following principles and values as resulting from the Conclusions of the Conference:
- We recognize the paramount role of culture, as the “backbone of society”, for the national identity and cohesion, resilience, recovery, development and prosperity of Ukraine, as well as for its recognition abroad;
- We recognize the urgent need for the protection of Ukraine’s cultural heritage and the need for Ukrainian cultural and educational actors for the supply of practical equipment and funding from official and private sources in partner countries as well as for long-term cooperation with counterparts in partner countries;
- We support the priority of Ukrainian policymakers to integrate Ukraine into the European cultural and educational space;
- We recommend Ukrainian decision-makers in the area of culture and education to “build back better” after the war, by combining recovery and reconstruction with reforms;
- We encourage a participatory approach towards formulating strategies in the area of culture and education, involving stakeholders from local government, cultural and educational institutions, academia, civil society and others.
The Board
Werner Schmitt, President, co-founder
Christian Frei, secretary
Anna Kuznetsova, Partnerships and Programme Manager
Tatiana Markova
Stas Sagdeyev
Christian Schoenenberger, co-founder
Maria Söderberg
Vladimir Yefimov, coordinator
