On July 24, 2025, at a session of the Lviv City Council, the Lviv Community Culture Development Strategy until 2035 was adopted. The Cultural Strategy Institute, a municipal institution under the Department of Education and Culture of the Lviv City Council, is responsible for monitoring and implementing the Strategy.
The document captures a vision of the field that stems from the realities of wartime and the important role of culture in these conditions, while continuing the practice of strategizing in the field at the local level. Its specificity is determined by the context of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and the prospect of post-war reconstruction of the country, the need to strengthen national security, social stability, and cultural capabilities, the existence of a national strategy for cultural development, as well as the European integration process and Lviv’s participation in the international competition “European Capital of Culture 2030.” All these factors pose new challenges for the cultural sector and those who work in it.
In this vision, Lviv is presented as a “European city of living memory, relevant heritage, and new meanings,” and culture is presented as “a force that creates, develops, and transforms the city,” “shaping a space of responsibility, mutual care, solidarity, and connection to place for everyone.” The vision unfolds through three dimensions of the city — as a community, a workroom, and a platform. The mission stated in the documents is “to promote the transformation of Lviv through culture — as a space for knowledge, memory, action, and imagination. Develop culture as a common good that unites the community, heals and restores it, nourishes the city’s identity, and strengthens its resilience.”
The cross-cutting priorities of Strategy 2035 are people-centeredness, participation, accessibility, sustainable development, and technological feasibility. The document defines six strategic direction:
- Culture as a factor of national security.
- Human capital and education.
- Cultural heritage and memory.
- Innovation in culture.
- Management, financing, infrastructure.
- City cultural diplomacy.
Strategy 2035 is a framework document that will be implemented on the principles of flexible management, allowing for dynamic responses to change. The document was developed by the Institute for Cultural Strategy. The strategy is the result of research (resident surveys, interviews with industry representatives, analysis of materials), expert consulting, and a participatory process with representatives of the cultural sector and other industries in 2024-2025.Strategy 2035 offers a 10-year outlook for the cultural sphere of the Lviv city community.
Here you can read (in Ukrainian) the Lviv Community Culture Development Strategy 2035.
This document was preceded by the Lviv Culture Development Strategy 2025 (adopted in June 2017 at a plenary session of the Lviv City Council).