Digital

The British Council and the Ukrainian Institute have launched the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, a new programme designed to support the Ukrainian arts sector.

The season, which has been planned since 2019, marks 30 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, its theme is “Future Re-Imagined”. 

It will focus on the changing needs and priorities of the Ukrainian arts sector and aim to provide new opportunities for Ukrainian artists. A programme of activities, events, grant-funded projects, residences, talks, films and lectures will take place in the UK, online and in satellite locations.

The season will also support future Ukrainian artistic collaboration through a series of grants worth up to £30,000, based on the results of an open call launched last October.

They will include the development of residencies for Ukrainian musicians and dancers; theatre pieces that examine Ukrainian political and cultural history; professional development opportunities for Ukrainian journalists and collaborations with Ukrainian designers, photographers and digital artists for London Fashion Week.

The season launched last week at Sheffield DocFest with a display of artworks and screenings of Ukrainian documentaries. 

Upcoming highlights include Cheltenham Book Festival and the Kyiv Book Arsenal partnering for a special Ukraine Day event celebrating emerging voices in Ukrainian literature; a Ukrainian to English Literary Translation Summer School at the University of East Anglia, bringing together translators and authors; and a programme at the 2022 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival focusing on contemporary Ukrainian opera and chamber music.

“While the whole of Ukrainian society is affected by the Russian aggression, artists and creatives are among the most vulnerable groups,” said Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General of the Ukrainian Institute. 

“Ukrainian culture is a major target in this war, so it is particularly important to continue building networks and supporting the creative sector.”
 

The Natural History Museum will move a third of its collection to a new research and storage centre in Berkshire as part of efforts to make its assets digitally available to academics around the world.

The planned £180m centre at the Thames Valley Science Park in Shinfield, Berkshire, is a collaboration with the University of Reading and is being funded by DCMS.

The centre will house a third of the Natural History Museum's assets, including its mammal collections and non-insect invertebrates - such as corals, crustaceans, molluscs and worms - totalling more than 27 million specimens.

It is hoped the collections will help studies of climate change, food security and biodiversity conservation.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading Professor Robert Van de Noort said it was an "exciting development" for the university.

"It could provide significant opportunities for our academics and students, as well as bringing benefits to the broader local area," he said.

"This new relationship with the Natural History Museum should further enhance the international research success of both organisations," he added.

The centre is expected to be completed in 2026, subject to planning permission.

Most people struggle to identify a specific reason why they don’t engage with arts online, a government survey has found.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's Participation Survey which provides estimates of physical and digital engagement with the arts, heritage, museums and galleries, found that around one in four (27%) people had engaged with art digitally over the past year.

Of those who hadn't, when asked about the barriers they face, 45% said there was "no reason in particular", with 29% saying they were "not interested", and 11% saying they "don't have the time".

Other barriers to digital engagement included having a health problem or disability (8%), it being too expensive (8%), having no access to internet (5%) or "not knowing what is available" (3%).

The study found a negative correlation between digital engagement in the arts and areas of deprivation. The most deprived areas showed 20% engagement in the arts, compared with 31% in the least deprived areas.

Meanwhile, 32% of those in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations engaged digitally in the arts, compared with 23% of respondents in intermediate occupations and 17% in routine and manual occupations.