Piotr Gliński added that "culture is the main driving force behind societal creativity."
He made the statement in a video address to an international conference in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Gliński, who is also Poland's culture minister, told the Creative Ukraine International Forum on Wednesday: “Culture is the main driving force behind a society’s creativity, so it is crucial to facilitate access to cultural heritage as an important part of shared identity and a valuable creative resource.”
He added that this should be done “first through making collections available through digital technology and then by digitising the entire national cultural heritage.”
Support for Ukrainian cultural institutions
Gliński told the Kyiv conference that “the Polish government supports the digitisation of Ukraine’s cultural heritage artefacts and the creation of a digital platform to archive, protect and disseminate them.”
He added: “We have started to catalogue the losses in Ukraine’s heritage architecture and archeological sites. We have set up the Warsaw-based Raphael Lemkin Centre for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine to collect evidence of Russian war crimes.”
He pledged that “the multi-faceted assistance provided by Poland to Ukraine since February 24 will continue.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, “some 8 million people have crossed into Poland,” Gliński said, adding that his country was "currently home to more than 2 million Ukrainians."
Gliński also said that his Ministry of Culture and National Heritage was coordinating assistance to Ukrainian cultural institutions, as well as directly helping more than 100 of them, “by providing generators, fire extinguishers and sandbags, among many other essential supplies.”
He added that many Polish institutions were offering residencies to Ukrainian artists, as well as other forms of assistance.
“I would like to assure you that the Polish government and the Polish people are seeking to help meet Ukraine’s most pressing needs,” Gliński declared.
Held by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Creative Ukraine International Forum conference attracted more than 100 experts, officials and entrepreneurs from many countries to discuss the challenges of policymaking in the creative industries, the PAP news agency reported.
The conference runs until Thursday.
Thursday is day 288 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl