The cultural attaché of the Republic of Lithuania, Thomas Ivanauskas, visited Sheptytskyi.
The visit took place as part of the StreetArt Chervonohrad project, implemented by the Department of Tourism and Resorts of the Lviv Regional State Administration in cooperation with the Sheptytsky City Council, businesses, and charitable organisations.
“The aim of the project is to revitalise the urban space of Sheptytsky through murals, turning the city into a street art centre that will promote tourism. Instead of the usual association with an industrial city, Sheptytsky will get a new creative image that will attract tourists. The city has the potential to become a real art capital of Ukraine, where every building will tell its own story,” said Taras Lozynskyi, Head of the Tourism and Resorts Department of the Lviv Regional State Administration, during the presentation of the project to a foreign guest.
Tomas Ivanauskas spoke about this year’s experience of implementing the Tree of Life project on Chornomorskaya Street in Lviv, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania and the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine. The project became part of the MaLonNY festival (an acronym for Marijampolė, London, New York), an annual street art and music festival that has been taking place in the Lithuanian city of Marijampolė since 2014. Over the course of 10 years, the festival has turned Marijampolė into a creative centre where artists from all over the world work.
Sheptytskyi is a sister city of Mariampole. Oleksandr Kulepin, Deputy Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation (CDTO), suggested organising a similar street art festival next year in Sheptytskyi.
“We aim to increase tourist flows to the city, which is undergoing a coal transformation and needs to create new jobs in small and medium-sized businesses. These steps are fully in line with the regional development strategy of Lviv region. Cooperation with the Lithuanian Embassy is just beginning, but I am confident that next year we will successfully implement our first joint project,” said Oleksandr Kulepin.
The murals will become the basis for creating tourist routes.
During the meeting, the delegation viewed the already created murals, as well as a new mural that is in the final stages and will be presented soon. The guests also visited locations that represent the cultural heritage of the region and can serve as a source of inspiration for future artworks on the walls in Sheptytsky.