“Tysiachovesna” for museums: which projects will receive support and what comes next

A museum in virtual reality, chimeras brought to life, the story of a castle under occupation, a language amusement park and an interactive labyrinth of Zaporizhzhia's history: all this and more will be created by the winners of “Tysiachovesna”.

In the “Visual Arts” category, 77 projects will receive state funding. Their authors include museums and reserves as well as NGOs, artists, researchers and digital teams working with cultural heritage.

The topics are very diverse: Ukrainian identity, stolen and destroyed art, outstanding figures, architecture, folk crafts and folklore. They will be presented in exhibitions, animation, educational programmes, digital reconstructions, VR and augmented reality.

“Tysiachovesna” will continue in 2027. Ideas for the next competition can already be found in museum collections, including those presented on our National Museum Portal.

Museums at “Tysiachovesna”

“Tysiachovesna” is an initiative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, implemented by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine together with the Office of the President.

There was no separate museum category in the first competition, but state and municipal institutions could apply to any category that matched their idea. A museum could prepare an application on its own or bring in partners with the necessary experience.

Funding terms depended on the type of cultural product. Under the rules of the first competition, the state could cover up to 50%, 80% or 100% of its cost. Full support could go, in particular, to children's and debut exhibition projects.

In total, the first “Tysiachovesna” received 2,634 applications, of which 1,215 reached the final pitches. According to the updated results, 545 winning projects were selected in six categories. The results of the “Audiovisual shows and social media videos” category will be announced separately.

“‘Tysiachovesna’ has shown the scale of creative energy in Ukraine today and, at the same time, a huge demand for systematic support for culture. Our task is to help turn this energy into films, music, performances, animation and art projects that Ukrainians will watch, listen to and choose,” said Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna.

Museum stories in new formats

The list of winners of “Tysiachovesna” in the “Visual Arts” category shows how museum materials can go beyond a conventional exhibition.

For example, the permanent display of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, dismantled for safety reasons after 24 February 2022, will be recreated in VR. Visitors will be able to walk through the virtual halls from a computer, smartphone or VR headset, look at the works, listen to an audio guide and open archival materials.

The project “CHIMERAS. A Bestiary of Ukraine Brought to Life” will combine original art, folklore and digital animation. Images inspired by Mavka, Chuhaister, Vii and other mythological creatures will come to life in short videos. The story of Vasylivka Castle, which remains under occupation, will be told outside the walls of the monument, and reproductions of 200 works from the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum will be shown in children's hospitals.

Behind each of these ideas lies specific material: a museum object, a monument, an archival photograph, a folk image or a piece of research. Not only museum staff can work with it, but also directors, artists, curators, educators and developers. A biography can become the basis of a film, a craft the basis of an exhibition or animation, a monument the basis of a digital reconstruction, and a museum collection the basis of a game, quest or video series for schoolchildren.

In 2027 a book category is planned for “Tysiachovesna”, and the programme is to be expanded to video games. In this way museum stories will be able to appear in publications, audiobooks and interactive digital formats.

Where to look for topics for the next “Tysiachovesna”

On the National Museum Portal you can browse collections from different regions of Ukraine: works by artists, archaeological finds, early printed books, household items and decorative art. Materials about Ukrainian museums are also collected here.

Museum professionals can see how objects from different collections complement each other and find partners for a joint project. Directors, artists, screenwriters and researchers can discover a little-known figure, event or monument worth telling about.

For museums the portal has another important function: here they can keep a digital register of their collections. If an object is stolen, the saved photographs, descriptions and registration data will help to identify it and confirm that it belongs to a particular museum collection.