Ukraine/ 8.4 Amateur arts, cultural associations and civil initiatives  

8.4.1 Amateur arts and folk culture

Each locality of Ukraine is traditionally rich in authentic folk arts and amateur arts. During the last years, local communities not only preserved the existing amateur arts but also developed new ones including youth and national minority subcultures. Now, along with such traditional types of the amateur arts in Ukraine as brass band music, orchestras of folk instruments, choral singing, choreographic art and dancing, amateur theatre, decorative and applied art, embroidery, etc. one can enjoy modern genres generated by new technologies and social evolution: pop song studios, groups of acoustic music, multimedia art, computer graphic, etc.

In each regional city of Ukraine, there is a regional centre of amateur art and folk culture. A regional centre is an institution providing proper conditions for the development of folk culture and amateur art and leisure activities. It is a creative and methodological centre for houses of culture or clubs in each region.

According to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine database, there are about 350 amateur theatres and 60 folk and amateur orchestras. To illustrate the multiplicity of amateur groups and artists in Ukraine it is sufficient to examine a separate region or town. For instance, in the Ternopil region (Western Ukraine) with a population of 1.14 million persons (2.3% of the population of Ukraine) of which (57.3%) reside in rural areas, there are about 3 500 amateur groups involving more than 50 000 persons. Only in a separate locality, Gusiatyn rayon, which has 65 small towns, villages and settlements with a total population of 68 000 persons, there are 192 amateur groups involving 2 535 persons. 108 800 amateur organisations and groups operate in the cultural houses and centres in Ukraine, in which about 1.4 million people take part.

Regular festivals and exhibitions of the amateur arts, such as the Annual Brass Band Parade in the city of Ternopil, festivals of music and dance art such as "Colourful Wreath" (Dnipropetrovsk) and "Artistic Colours" (Pryluky), "Theatre Spring" (Kherson), "Theatre Autumn" (Pryluky), "Stage" (Kirovograd), exhibitions "Pictorial Ukraine" and others are also worth mentioning.

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