Strong Cultural Institutions: Steps Toward Systemic Reform
Reforming cultural institutions is not only about changing legal structures. It is about creating the conditions for culture to grow, adapt to challenges, and rely on strong, transparent, and sustainable institutions.
Ukraine’s international partners, through the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), support dialogue and practical steps that help strengthen the cultural sector and improve coordination among those involved in the reform.
As part of this work, PFRU helped create a dialogue platform that brought together key stakeholders to exchange views, experience, and ideas on how to move institutional reform in culture forward. The meeting gathered representatives of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, cultural institutions, the expert community, and international partners. Participants included Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna, and First Deputy Minister Ivan Verbytskyi.
The main question of the meeting was how to make Ukrainian cultural institutions more autonomous, capable, and resilient.
Participants discussed the transformation of state enterprises into state non-commercial entities as an important first step in a broader reform. The conversation focused on how this legal change can open the way for deeper improvements in governance, more flexible management, and more effective use of finances, assets, and human resources.
The discussion also focused on sustainable models of financing and development for cultural institutions. Participants highlighted the need for more predictable core funding, institutional support for growth, and conditions that would allow institutions not only to keep operating, but also to plan ahead and attract additional resources.
The meeting became an important step towards better coordination around the reform. Participants agreed that further progress will require joint efforts by the state, cultural institutions, experts, and donors, including support for pilot initiatives and a consistent approach to the next stages of reform.
