The Women in Arts Award is growing and becoming more influential in Ukraine

The laureates of the Award were announced on March 12, during the HeForShe Arts Week 2021.

Over the past three years the award gained national and expert recognition, became recognizable and laid ground for a new tradition in Ukrainian arts history to emerge, becoming an important milestone in Ukrainian cultural development and inspiring women towards new achievements. In 2021, some new elements have been added to the Award: the organizers have introduced a new category - Special Mention. It will be awarded to women whose activities cannot be assigned to any of the categories or who do not meet the formal requirements and criteria of the award, but whose contribution to Ukrainian culture is important.

The winners of the Award became women artists in the respective categories:

Women in Visual Arts –– Alina Kleytman, contemporary artist, winner of the second Special Prize of PinchukArtCentre 2015;

Women in Music –– Oksana Lyniv, conductor, founder and art-director of the LvivMozArt festival;

Women in Theatre –– Tamara Trunova, theater director, chief director of the Kyiv Theater on the left bank of the Dnipro;

Women in Film –– Iryna Tsilyk, film director, winner of the Sundance Film Festival;

Women in Literature –– Sofia Andrukhovych, writer, translator;

Women in Cultural Management –– Yuliia Fediv, cultural manager, public figure;

Women in Cultural Journalism, Criticism and Research –– Vira Baldyniuk, art critic, editor-in-chief of Korydor magazine;

Special Mention –– Valeria Burlakova, journalist, veteran, author of the book "Life P. S.".   

“Year after year we can see our Women in Arts Award becomes even more visible and influential. It is a good sign for us and evidence of the growing demand in Ukrainian society for the equal representation of women and men in all fields. We will continue to put in the efforts so that the role of women and their contribution to the Ukrainian culture be recognized, and their achievements motivate new generations to create. In this context, Special Mention nomination makes the Award more open and inclusive”, remarks Erika Kvapilova, UN Women Country Representative in Ukraine.

To honour this year's winners, UN Women Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute invited director Nadia Parfan to make a documentary about them. The premiere of the film “Women who play” took place online on the media service Megogo. The documentary is available for viewing for free, in any country and with English subtitles.

“This is a play movie getting us back to childhood and making to recall our origins,” said Nadia Parfan. “Heroines of the film are grown girls who “nailed it” These women dedicate themselves fully to their works, celebrate their lives, make mistakes, turn challenges to opportunities, and keep moving. They are the face of Ukrainian culture now”.

“Women who play” is a collective portrait of seven winners of Women in Arts Award 2021. In the future, the film will be shown on other online platforms and television to reach as large an audience as possible and tell about outstanding Ukrainian contemporary women artists.