An alternative to Andriivsky uzviz?

An alternative to Andriivsky uzviz is being planned for Kyiv’s Shevchenko district. The local authorities have promised to provide willing artists with display space on Kostiolna Street and Academician Fomin Alley, which is in the vicinity of the Academician Fomin Botanical Gardens. This is one way that the district state administration is planning to attract tourists, reports Kommersant, while the artists concerned fear they are being forced out of their studios on Andriivsky uzviz.

On Sept. 23, when the city district’s 70th anniversary will be marked, the local state administration will welcome artists to their new premises on Kostiolna Street and in the alley between the red buildings of Shevchenko Kyiv National University and the Academician Fomin Botanical Gardens. Halyna Pakhachuk, deputy chairperson of the Shevchenko City District Council of Kyiv, says: “We thought: why shouldn’t our district welcome artists who want to display their works? There is such bad energy on Andriivsky uzviz that there’s enough to build a vampire-style hotel.” She added that artists would be free to display their works every day on those particular streets, and the district state administration will be advising travel agencies to include the new routes in their itineraries of Ukraine’s “Montmartre.”

Pakhachuk says that the street above the Botanical Gardens will be named “Masters’ Alley” and spots there will be allotted free of charge. Awnings will eventually be installed there, and the district administration is preparing “a surprise for an art gallery on Mykhailivska Street. “They are displaying excellent paintings in these catacombs, so we decided to provide them with new premises.”

I couldn’t get in touch with any of the Podil raion officials, who have jurisdiction over Andriivsky uzviz. Artists who live and work there fear that they will be shown the door, the hard way. Kommersant quotes Serhii Tarasenko, head of the nonprofit organization Ukrainskyi vernisazh, who says that he is not opposed to the idea of an alternative to Andriivsky uzviz because there are not enough places for artists to sell their works. But he doesn’t believe that the new premises will be given to any of these artists free of charge. “It would be good at least if they establish reasonable rents that won’t change in the next couple of years.”

Pakhachuk’s description of the “negative energy” on Andriivsky uzviz sparked a bigger reaction. The people at the Triptych Gallery were outraged: “They don’t have to spin fairytales; all they want is our land. This is a historic artists’ area; this was where even our most famous artists embarked on their careers.”

The artists have the support of some members on the Kyiv City Council. Ihor Dobrutsky, the head of a municipal taskforce in charge of restoring and upgrading the area around Andriivsky uzviz, says: “After being adequately bribed, our bureaucrats can shut their eyes to anything afterwards; all of us have seen this practice. However, we will not leave Andriivsky uzviz without artists.” Dobrutsky is confident that no one will be allowed to evict them from their studios. There are plans to restore the street and set up a viewing square in addition to special rows of kiosks for souvenir sellers, while the artists will be able to display their works on the street, like before.

Meanwhile, travel agencies, like the Galleon Company, which specializes in tours of Kyiv, announced on Sept. 14 that they will not be including any of the itineraries proposed by the Shevchenko District Administration because “the new streets where our artists will be allowed to display their works will not be popular with tourists, even if well known artists come there.” Hanna Turchenko, the head of a company called Compass Ukraine, said that the authorities should first set things right on Andriivsky uzviz and then develop some alternatives.