Participant Profile

Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta

Ukraine
Kyiv

Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta is the Director General of National Art and Culture Museum Complex “Mystetskyi Arsenal” (Art Arsenal), as well as the Board member of the Warm City platform for initiatives (Ivano-Frankivsk) and the CEDOS think tank (Kyiv). Until recently, she was the Board member of the Ukrainian Institute and the East Europe Foundation, as well as the head of the Program Board, Social Capital program, at the International Renaissance Foundation.

She was the Head of analytics at pro.mova consulting company and a founding member of Culture2025 independent platform for development of a national strategy for culture.

In 2014, Ms. Ostrovska-Liuta served as the Frist Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine. As the Deputy Minister, she supported participative development of the national strategy for culture and development of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, she also advocated autonomy for the institutions of culture and equal rights for state owned and civil society institutions of culture. During her career she was the First Deputy to the Head of the National Committee for UNESCO and a member of Ukraine-Poland Presidential Advisory Committee. She was also a member of several professional bodies. Among them: the Board of the Center for Contemporary Art Foundation, jury of Kazimir Malevich Art Prize founded by the Polish Institute in Ukraine, jury at Molodist International Film Festival, boards of the I3 grant program and the Dynamic Museum project at the Foundation for Development of Ukraine.

Ms. Ostrovska-Liuta served as the Program Director for culture of the Foundation for Development of Ukraine between 2008 and 2014.

She has also worked as a freelance curator for contemporary art and a writer on the issues of culture and cultural policy.

Ostrovska-Liuta is a MA in cultural studies (National University if Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), she fluently speaks English, Polish and Russian, and Ukrainian as the native language.