Kultura. Exploring Ukraine’s visual culture
Eight-week online course. 22 September – 10 November 2025
What is the role of art and visual culture in shaping and defining identities? How can we ascribe artists and artworks from historical periods and geographies to contemporary nation-states? What is the value of art, especially in the time of war? And can it be weaponised or used as a tool of cultural diplomacy? Within the eight weeks of the Ukrainian Institute London’s Kultura course, we will delve into all these questions and more.
For centuries, Ukrainian art remained marginalised within dominant art historical narratives, its visual culture either suppressed or appropriated by imperial regimes. Yet creativity endured. Across generations, Ukrainians have drawn upon this resilient cultural heritage to redefine identity and assert nationhood. From the frescoes of Kyivan Rus’, Taras Shevchenko’s etchings, and Bruno Schulz’s illustrations to the modernist innovations in decorative arts and architecture, and the dynamic art scene of independent Ukraine, Kultura traces the richness and endurance of Ukraine’s visual culture, past and present.
Kultura offers a unique opportunity to engage with leading experts from around the globe.
- Comprehensive course handbook and materials.
- Engaging discussions with lecturers and fellow students.
- On-demand access to recorded video lectures for flexible learning.
The course is designed with no expectation of prior knowledge of art or Ukrainian history.
Over the span of eight online seminars, leading specialists in the visual culture of Ukraine will guide participants through key themes, movements, and contexts. The programme culminates in an exclusive concluding ninth seminar featuring a live Q&A with Kultura lecturers and three renowned contemporary Ukrainian artists: Oleg Tistol, Pavlo Kerestey and Maryna Skugareva, offering a rare opportunity for direct dialogue and reflection.
The course will be held via Zoom and conducted in English.
Course coordinator: Constance Uzwyshyn, Ukrainian Institute London/University of Cambridge
Course co-curators: Constance Uzwyshyn and Katia Denysova
Dates
8 weeks: 22 September – 10 November, with a concluding seminar on 13 November 2025
18:30 – 20:00 (London Time) (NB final seminar 18:30 – 20:30)
Fees
Early bird discount available until 7 September!
Full course: £260 general (£180 student) — includes a Certificate of Completion, and full course materials.
One seminar: £35 general (£25 student) — includes course materials and video recording for the seminar attended.
Friends and Benefactors of the Institute are also eligible for a discount. Please check your emails for the checkout code.
Full course: £236 general (£162 student).
One seminar: £31.50 general (£22.50 student).
How to enrol
Enrolment is available for the full course or individual seminars (listed below). Should you have any queries, please email us at [email protected]. We will aim to respond within five working days.
2025 course programme
Week 1: 22 September
Kyiv’s Medieval Glory: Things in Heaven and Earth
Lecturer: Dr Olenka Z. Pevny (University of Cambridge)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 2: 29 September
The Web of Images: Vision, Memory, and Meditation in Early Modern Ukrainian Culture
Lecturer: Dr Maria Grazia Bartolini (University of Milan)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 3: 6 October
Taras Shevchenko and Printmaking in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Lecturer: Dr Galina Mardilovich (Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 4: 13 October
Folk Impulse in Ukraine’s Modernist Art
Lecturer: Dr Katia Denysova (University of Tübingen)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 5: 20 October
Modern Architecture and Planning in Early Soviet Kharkiv
Lecturer: Dr Christina E. Crawford (Emory University)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 6: 27 October
Ukrainian Traces in the Works of Bruno Schulz
Lecturer: Professor Stanley Bill (University of Cambridge)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 7: 3 November
Ukrainian Mosaics of the Soviet Period: Between Official Ideology and National Sensibility
Lecturer: Emma Louise Leahy (PhD Candidate, Università La Sapienza)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 8: 10 November
Ukrainian Contemporary Art and Feminism: Histories within a History
Lecturer: Dr Olena S Dmytryk (University of Cambridge)
Find out more and sign up here.
Week 8: 13 November – concluding session
What is the Value of Art? The Ukrainian Art Market and the Impact of the Russian Full-Scale Invasion
Constance Uzwyshyn (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge)
Find out more and sign up here.
2024 course programme
23 September
‘Disseminator of the light of truth’: Taras Shevchenko and etching in the mid-nineteenth century
Lecturer: Galina Mardilovich (Smart Museum of Art)
30 September
From folk to modern in Ukraine’s early 20th-century art
Lecturer: Katia Denysova (University of Tübingen)
7 October
Modern architecture and planning in early Soviet Kharkiv
Lecturer: Christina E. Crawford (Emory University)
14 October
The expanded Sixties: thinking about post-war Ukrainian Sixties then and now
Lecturer: Lizaveta German (The Naked Room Gallery, Open Archive Research Platform)
21 October
Ukrainian contemporary art and feminism: histories within a history
Lecturer: Olena S Dmytryk (Independent Scholar)
28 October
Back to the future: how Ukrainian contemporary art reflects the war and its own history
Lecturer: Kateryna Iakovlenko (Cultural Editor-in-Chief of Suspilne Media)
4 November
Private online tour of the Royal Academy exhibition ‘In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930’, and a conversation with Kultura course co-curators Katia Denysova and Constance Uzwyshyn.
11 November
Kyiv’s medieval glory: things in heaven and earth
Lecturer: Olenka Z. Pevny (University of Cambridge)
18 November
What is the value of art? An exploration of the Ukrainian art market and the impact of the Russian full-scale invasion in Ukraine
Constance Uzwyshyn (UIL/University of Cambridge)