Donations to the school that has taught the profession

Virtually every parent of school-age child knows how heavy the financial burden of nominally free education really is. From textbooks and workbooks to school guards and repairs, everything makes call on parents’ purses, as public funding is sorely lacking. The specialized schools that train future intellectuals, the pride of any country, have it even harder, because gifted children come there from around Ukraine and most of them are boarders.

Since its foundation, the Shevchenko State Secondary Arts School (SSAS) has contributed to start of more than 3,000 talented boys and girls’ creative careers. Many names of its graduates are more than just pride of Ukraine as the entire world knows and appreciates them. The works by many painters, graphic artists, and sculptors adorn the most prestigious exhibitions and are kept in the world’s finest museums and private collections. This country’s talent pool is still going strong, but the school finds it significantly harder now to keep functioning and teaching due to a miserable funding situation.

The most famous artists who graduated from the SSAS have joined forces with the Dukat auctioneers to establish the Dukat Art Charity, Ukraine’s first ever project of this kind. The project aims to raise additional non-state funding for schools of crucial importance for national culture, other institutions and projects, the lack of which not only deprives us all of the future, but has a significant negative impact on Ukraine’s international image, too.

The first charity auction offering over 40 works by the Ukrainian artists who graduated from the SSAS will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel on December 5 at 7:30 p.m. It will include works by Silvashi and Vaisberh, Pryduvalova and Tistol, Zhyvotkov and Mamsykov, as well as many others. The world famous masters’ paintings will be displayed side by side with interesting pieces by today’s best students. True connoisseurs ought to take interest in 10 diploma works by today’s superstars as well, as they have not been publicly exhibited before and will be pleasant surprises for the wider audience.

The pre-auction exhibition will be held at the Ducat salon from November 27 to December 5, enabling everyone not only to explore the lots, but to make a preliminary selection, too. We hope that this first auction will help the SSAS to regain its breath and give new opportunities to its students.