Head of Shevchenko Prize Committee Makarov resigns
Head of the Committee for the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine Yuriy Makarov has resigned.
"I am leaving this honorary position with the feeling that our previous joint work somehow contributed to the strengthening and renewal of our national culture," Makarov said on Facebook.
In addition, he said that a few days ago, as head of the Committee, he took the initiative to supplement the list of nominations with additional awards "For Contribution to Victory."
"I proceeded from the fact that this year the committee did not consider it possible to award an award in two categories, and meanwhile, since the beginning of a full-scale war, an incredible, unimaginable number of works of art, projects and phenomena have appeared that are made on enthusiasm and literally bring our victory closer," he said.
Such a proposal was supported by the President's Office, which delayed the release of the results of the 2023 contest in order to announce the winners collectively on May 22, he said.
"Unfortunately, the desire to pay respect to those artists who raise Ukrainian culture to a fundamentally new level, involve our heroic warriors and residents of the liberated territories in it, promote the country in the world, ran into aggressive misunderstanding. Many respected representatives of the artistic community and caring citizens took this step as a political speculation, an attempt by the authorities to appoint "their" nominees or to belittle the weight of already determined laureates," he said.
In addition, according to Makarov, his initiative also did not find support among colleagues, members of the Prize Committee.
As reported, on March 10, Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko and Yuriy Makarov announced that the winners of the Shevchenko Prize, along with the winners of the new nomination "For Contribution to Victory" would be announced on May 22, the day of Taras Shevchenko's reburial.
At the same time, already on March 11, the Prize Committee announced the winners of some of the nominations.
