The ‘KONTENTA’ audiovisual studies project continues to engage young people in public life, develop their civic competencies, and promote independence and competitiveness by acquiring creative industry skills. On October 24 and 25, the Cultural Platform team held the opening of the seventeenth studio in Dnipro.
This is the third studio in the region: KONTENTA studios in Kropyvnytskyi and Kryvyi Rih have been operating since April 2024.
On October 24, the team of the Cultural Platform held the opening of the seventeenth KONTENTA studio at the Dnipro Art College.
“The opening of KONTENTA in our college is an incredible help not only to the educational institution but also to the entire cultural and artistic landscape of Dnipro,”
said Inna Rudkevych, Director of Dnipro Art College.
”We are the only ones in the region training specialists in audiovisual arts and production, and the studio’s equipment ensures the sustainable development of the creative sector. Our students are delighted with the opportunity to master professional equipment and audiovisual production technologies for creating high-quality artistic products.”
Now the youth of Dnipro Art College and the city in general, studying in the fields of ‘Audiovisual Art and Production,’ ‘Graphic Design,’ ‘Folk Song Art,’ ‘Folk Instrumental Art,’ ‘Estrade Singing,’ ‘Puppet Theater Actor,’ ‘Drama Theater Actor,’ ‘Spectacular & Theatrical Events,’ and ‘Management of Socio-Cultural Activities,’ will be able to carry out individual studio work, organize group educational and cultural events, record vocals and musical instruments, shoot video blogs, podcasts, and live streams thanks to the technical setup and licensed Ableton Live software.
Ableton Live is a software sequencer for musicians and sound designers operating on the sound loop technique. The program has two modes: one for creating music in a traditional studio environment (‘Arrangement View’) and one for real-time performance (‘Session View’).
An important component of the studio’s functioning is strengthening the opportunities for cultural education in the context of the war, which has caused significant destruction in the country. According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications, there are currently only 45 municipal and 14 state-art colleges, academies, and universities in Ukraine. Over the past two years, 48 art schools and two art colleges (in Bakhmut and Mariupol) have been completely destroyed. Seventy-two art schools and one state music lyceum have been damaged. Higher education institutions have also been damaged and partially destroyed. According to data from the Dnipro Regional State Administration for 2021, 88 art schools in the Dnipro region had a total of about 25,000 students.
As a consequence of the war, 44.5 thousand children and youth across Ukraine were unable to continue their art studies. One hundred thirteen art schools and six art colleges are under temporary occupation. Those who stayed in Ukraine are under daily threat of terrorist attacks by russians.
For example, during the opening events on October 25, Russia launched a missile attack on the civilian infrastructure of Dnipro, killing five people, including a child. Four of the injured were children and young people, including a 17-year-old boy who was taken to the hospital in serious condition.
In the context of total physical danger, Ukrainian youth requires interaction with the world in which their future is being shaped. This particularly applies to vocational education, which is an integral component of an individual’s aesthetic education and enables future planning while ensuring the competitiveness of Ukrainian youth in the international arena.
Such education also allows us to explore the components of cultural and national identity that shape mental resilience and allows us to rethink cultural phenomena of the past, transforming them into value chains through digital technologies.
The Decree of the President of Ukraine on the National Youth Strategy until 2030 (Strategy of 12.03.2021 No. 94/2021) notes that, even without taking into account martial law, today’s youth is growing up in a much more diverse, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment than the previous generation. This complexity is primarily demonstrated by the transition from acquiring education to obtaining employment in the labor market: now, obtaining higher or vocational education and securing a job are happening simultaneously. Unlike previous generations, young people have more opportunities for choice and more freedom.
Periodic changes in the direction of professional activity and lifelong learning are becoming common features of adulthood.
According to the 2017 regional development strategy, the Dnipro region has the National Organ and Chamber Music Hall of Ukraine, a philharmonic, 784 libraries, 570 club spots, 14 theaters, four concert organizations and creative groups, and 26 museums. Within the framework of the state order, art education institutions train specialists who will support the activities of these cultural centers and, in fact, shape the vectors of the region’s cultural development. The total volume of the regional order for training specialists in professional art education institutions in the Dnipro region in 2023 was only 501 people. The five hundred students, who are funded by the state during their educational process, must be motivated to continue exploring their region and exchanging experiences with others. The KONTENTA project becomes a tool in this interaction, enabling the work with information and content in modern metrics, which are often unavailable to young people due to the low funding of the cultural sector and the lingering effects of Soviet-era approaches to education.
As a digital infrastructure for the future generation’s mental resilience, the network of studios will connect youth from 12 Ukrainian regions and contribute to the development of their civic competencies by enhancing competitiveness, independence, and social cohesion. Thanks to a hands-on approach to learning, ‘KONTENTA’ audiovisual studies are becoming a place for the formation of competent professionals in the creative industries of the future—and conscious citizens of the country.
In addition to the project presentation on October 24, the Cultural Platform team also held a sound design event for young people and an internal training session for vocational college staff and interested youth on how to use studio equipment.
Sound design
On October 25, under the mentorship of Bogdan Kuper, an ‘Introduction to Ableton’ workshop was held, as well as a podcast about the creative journey, hype, and monetization of creativity, produced by students of the Department of Audiovisual Arts and Production based on the newly established KONTENTA.
A podcast with Bogdan Kuper, produced by the youth
We hope that the only professional art education institution in the Dnipro region, which teaches young people audiovisual art, will now become a center of contemporary content, demonstrating the presence of the new generation in the digital dynamics of our reality, and will serve as a center for interaction among all specialized institutions of art education in the city.
Such an association becomes especially relevant in light of the funds allocated in the draft state budget for 2025 to support the development of culture. The state is allocating 9.6 billion UAH for culture and information space, with nearly 80% of the expenditures in this sector directed toward cities and communities. The promotion of the creative economy, which is part of the implementation of the ‘KONTENTA’ audiovisual studies project, will help develop opportunities for youth in communities to create added value through cultural products, which will be presented on modern streaming services on a par with international one.
By the end of 2024, with the support of UNICEF, the Cultural Platform NGO will open 20 KONTENTA studios in various communities across the country.
Photo Vladyslav Rybchenko, Anita Pavlovych
Anastasiya Mishustina
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