On December 18, at a session of the Lviv City Council, the city program “Responsibility to Be” for 2025-2030 was adopted.
The program aims to integrate into the community’s long-term cultural policy the systematic achievements of Lviv’s application as a candidate city for the title of European Capital of Culture 2030 “Responsibility to Be”. This strengthens the possibilities for implementing the ideas proposed in the application, despite the fact that Lviv did not receive the title of ECoC 2030.
Yuliia Khomchyn, Director of the Cultural Strategy Institute and leader of Lviv’s bid for the title of ECoC 2030, says:
«The value of the concept of “Responsibility to Be” and all the projects under this “umbrella” lies in the fact that it is the work of the city’s cultural community, that it is about us today, about what Ukrainians live for. And that is why these projects remain important and necessary for us (regardless of titles): these are, for example, initiatives to work with trauma, practices of remembering, in particular about the current war, and significant cultural phenomena of Lviv’s past and present. Therefore, the adoption of such a municipal program is quite logical.
It will be a good foundation, a reliable basis for starting to implement our plans, continuing communication, and developing relationships with partners, including foreign ones. After all, thanks to Lviv’s application for the title of ECoC, the brand “Responsibility to Be” is known in dozens of cities around the world, primarily in Europe. At the same time, such a program is also about the implementation of the Lviv Cultural Development Strategy 2035, particularly in areas such as human capital and education, heritage and memory, citу cultural diplomacy, and culture as a factor of national security».
By Roman Baluk.
Implementation of the program in 2026 will require at least UAH 10 million. A model combining contributions from the city budget, the state (in particular through the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, which has expressed its readiness for such cooperation), and fundraising campaigns is proposed.