Art education

Art education (мистецька освіта; mystetska osvita). Professional training in the various forms of visual art and its supporting disciplines, including the theory and history of art. In Ukraine, as in other European countries, art education at first consisted of the master’s handing on his experience to his pupils. The first teachers of drawing and miniature painting in Ukraine were probably Bulgarian, and the first teachers of stone architecture, mosaic and fresco painting, icon painting, and wood carving were Greek. A few names of monks who specialized in the arts have been preserved. The iconographer and mosaicist Master Alimpii (d 1114) of Kyiv studied with masters in Constantinople (to 1084) and founded the Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio. The miniaturist Deacon Spyrydonii, who drew 300 miniatures in the Kyiv Psalter of 1397, was a member of the Kyiv school. The monk Petro Ratensky (d 1326), painter and architect, and eventually the metropolitan of all Rus’ (1308–26), belonged to the Galician-Volhynian school.

In the 15th century the arts were studied within the Ukraine system of religious brotherhoods and guilds, which developed particularly rapidly in Galicia. The requirements for a master were raised: besides icon painting, a master had to know portraiture, multi-figured painting, battle painting, and genre painting and had to be acquainted with the artistic centers of other countries. Familiarity with the contributions of Western Europe had a positive influence on the artists of the Lviv and Zhovkva schools (see Zhovkva School of Artists), such as Ivan Rutkovych, Iov Kondzelevych, Vasyl Petranovych, and Mykola Petrakhnovych. By the end of the 16th century the students of brotherhood schools were being taught to draw and paint. During the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century the revived Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting and Art Studio was the artistic center of Ukraine. In the second half of the 18th century so-called supplementary classes in architecture and painting were set up at the Kharkiv College (directed by academician Ivan Sabluchok in 1768–73, and then by his students until 1798); the Kyivan Mohyla Academy (from 1784); the Nizhyn Lyceum (directed by K. Popov, 1820–39); Kyiv University (directed by the same K. Popov in 1839–46 and then by Havrylo Vasko from 1847 to 1863); the Kremianets Lyceum in Volhynia (1819–32); and the Kyiv Institute for Daughters of the Nobility.

In the middle of the 19th century the first private schools of art appeared in Ukraine. In Kyiv N. Buialsky’s Public School of Painting existed in 1848–63. In Poltava painter Grigorii Miasoedov opened a painting school in 1894. In Odesa the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts sponsored the School of Painting (1865–99; see Odesa Art School). In Kharkiv Mariia Raievska-Ivanova’s School of Drawing was in operation in 1869–96 and in 1912 (see Kharkiv Painting School). Mykola I. Murashko’s Kyiv Drawing School was founded in 1875 and existed until 1901 based on private donations, above all by Ivan Tereshchenko. The last three schools mentioned were of an academic character, and at the beginning of the 20th century they were transformed into art schools under the direction of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. Their graduates attained an above-secondary level of art education and had the right to enter the Academy of Arts. Mykola I. Murashko’s nephew, Oleksander Murashko, opened his own private drawing school in Kyiv in 1913, modeled on free art academies. Aside from drawing, the school offered innovative classes in the history of Ukrainian ornament, philosophy of art, and theory of colors. The school existed until 1917 and was a precursor to the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts established in December 1917.

In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the first schools of industrial art were established in Ukraine. The best known among the schools in central and eastern Ukraine before 1914 were the Mezhyhiria School (1826–74, part of the Mezhyhiria Faience Factory); the Nikolai Gogol School in Myrhorod (established in 1896 and directed by Opanas Slastion); the school at the Yosif Marshak gold and diamond products factory for training jewelers (opened in Kyiv in 1913); the school in Kamianets-Podilskyi (founded by Viacheslav Rozvadovsky in 1905); and the Opishnia school in the Poltava region.The schools of industrial art were funded by zemstvos or by private individuals. Most of the schools of kilim weaving depended on private support: the school in the village of Dihtiari (founded in 1898); the schools in Skoptsi and Reshetylivka (both directed by Yevheniia Prybylska in 1910–16); the school in Shylovychi; the school in the village of Olenivka in the Kyiv region (supported by Varvara Khanenko, directed by Fedir Krychevsky); etc. In Galicia there was a secondary school of industrial art in Lviv that was established in 1890 and several lower schools: of wood carving and kilim weaving in Kosiv, of woodworking in Yavoriv, of pottery in Kolomyia, of ceramics in Lviv. Some schools were associated with factories: the kilim factories in Tovste (school founded by V. Fedorovych in 1887), in Hlyniany (1894), and in the village of Zoziv (school founded by H. Levkovych in 1905). In Transcarpathia there was a ceramics school in Khust. In 1903–18 the Kyiv Graphic Arts and Printing School was associated with Vasyl Kulzhenko’s printing press (where drawing was taught by painter Fotii Krasytsky).

To obtain an advanced art education, Ukrainians had to attend foreign academies, and went primarily to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (est 1757), which was the sole art academy in Eastern Europe. Among its graduates were such artists as Antin Losenko (later the academy’s director), Dmytro H. Levytsky, Volodymyr Borovykovsky, and Taras Shevchenko. The Cracow Academy of Art (est in 1900) produced a group of impressionist landscape art painters: Oleksa Novakivsky, Ivan Trush, Mykola Burachek, etc. Mykhailo Boichuk and members of his group studied at the Paris Academy of Fine Arts in the 1910s. Others attended academies in Rome, Vienna, Munich (Modest Sosenko, Matvii Drak, Vadym Meller, Abram Manevich), Berlin, and other places. Art-history chairs were set up at Kyiv University (Hryhorii Pavlutsky), Kharkiv University, Odesa University, and Lviv University.

Ukrainian art education in the interwar period.
It was not until a Ukrainian government came to power during Ukraine’s struggle for independence (1917–20) that the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts was established by the law of 5 December 1917. Its first rector was Vasyl H. Krychevsky. The Kyiv Architecture Institute, under the direction of Dmytro Diachenko, was set up in 1918. A chair and a department of the history of Ukrainian art, headed by Oleksii Novytsky, were established at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN). The Odesa Art School was turned into an institution of higher learning. On 3 May 1918 the term ‘art’ appeared for the first time in the name of a Ukrainian state institution responsible for cultural and educational issues. The Ministry of Education and Arts under the Hetman government of Pavlo Skoropadsky subsequently assumed oversight also of conservatories, music schools, and other artistic activities as part of its official mandate. At that time, ‘steps were taken to preserve national cultural monuments of antiquity and art, to ensure the development of national theater, and to adapt cinema to the needs of education and upbringing in a national spirit.’ The government first introduced the idea of separating vocational schools from general education institutions, a policy later adopted by the Soviet authorities but under different ideological banners.

The system of professional and vocational education during the Soviet period, including music, art, and theater institutions, was established in 1920 alongside the broader Ukrainian education system. At that time, art vocational schools represented only 2.2% of all primary and secondary vocational institutions. The Ukrainian State Academy of Arts was turned into the Kyiv Institute of Plastic Arts in 1922–3 and a year later into the Kyiv State Art Institute. In 1924 when the Kyiv Architecture Institute was abolished, a department of architecture was added to the Kyiv State Art Institute. During the 1920s the three main art schools in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa were subject to frequent reorganization into industrial-art schools, an art-polytechnical school (Odesa), an art-professional school, an institute of proletarian artistic culture (Kyiv), or an art-technical school (Kharkiv). In 1928 they were finally designated as institutions of higher education and operated as such until 1934, when severe repression of Ukrainian culture began. Lower-level art schools included art tekhnikums in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk.

The reforms of 1934, which were designed to adapt education to the needs of industry, demoted the Kharkiv Art Institute and Odesa Art Institute to the level of secondary schools. Only one higher educational institution of art education—the Kyiv State Art Institute—was preserved. The best industrial-art schools—in Kamianets-Podilskyi and Mezhyhiria—were closed. Education was placed under strict Communist Party control, and many art teachers suffered political persecution during the Stalinist terror. The elementary art education lacked its own institutions apart from a few dozen after-school studios.

In Western Ukraine, then under Poland, there were chairs of art at Lviv University and at the Greek Catholic Theological Academy (Volodymyr R. Zalozetsky-Sas and Ilarion Svientsitsky in 1928–44). In 1923–32 there was also the Novakivsky Art School in Lviv, which was supported by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. The Studite Fathers operated a school of icon painting in Univ. During the German occupation the Higher Fine Arts Studio directed by Vasyl H. Krychevsky was opened in Lviv in 1943. There was also a handful of industrial art schools, including Kosiv school of Hutsul art and the kilim weaving school in Hlyniany.

Art education in postwar Soviet Ukraine.
In the postwar Ukrainian SSR the only higher art school was the Kyiv State Art Institute, which was comprised of the following faculties: painting (including workshops on stage design, pictorial and monumental art restoration), graphic art, sculpture, architecture, and art history and theory (which also had a correspondence courses division). Under the institute’s jurisdiction were also a secondary industrial-art school and the secondary Taras Shevchenko School, with an 11-year curriculum. There were two higher schools of industrial art in Ukraine: the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (now Lviv National Academy of Arts) and the Kharkiv Industrial Design Institute (now Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts), which used to be the Kharkiv Art Institute. Each institute had two faculties: the Lviv Institute had a faculty of decorative-applied art and a faculty of interior and furniture design, while the Kharkiv Institute had a faculty of industrial art and a faculty of interior and furniture design. Each had a five-year curriculum.

An art department existed only at the Kyiv State Art Institute. Soviet Ukraine had no academy of arts; such an academy existed only in RSFSR. In 1947 the USSR Academy of Arts was established in Moscow. It was an institution of higher learning and graduated artists with the highest qualifications. (Only in independent Ukraine, in 1992, the Kyiv State Art Institute was finally transformed into the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture.) Five Ukrainian art schools at a secondary level with a five-year curriculum admitted students who had not yet graduated from secondary schools; these were located in Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Odesa, Simferopol, and Kharkiv. There were also four secondary schools of applied art in Vyzhnytsia, Kosiv, Lviv (the Ivan Trush School), and Uzhhorod, and an industrial-art secondary school in Kyiv. These schools prepared specialists of an intermediate level, among whom were secondary school teachers of painting and drawing. Qualified workers in the applied or decorative arts were trained at technical-art schools, which had a three-year program. Secondary school students with exceptional artistic talent could (from the 1950s) attended supplementary four-year art schools.

There was a wide network of voluntary organizations for individuals, particularly young people, with artistic interests. Art instructors and consultants at palaces of culture, homes of culture, and amateur clubs promoted art among the public.

Art education in the diaspora.
Outside Ukraine, in Prague, a higher school of art—the Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Arts—was directed by Dmytro Antonovych in 1923–44. Chairs in the history of Ukrainian art were held at the Ukrainian Free University by Antonovych and at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute by Volodymyr Sichynsky. The sculptor Alexander Archipenko directed his own school in Paris (1912–14), Berlin (1921–23) and then in various cities of the United States, including New York, Seattle, and Woodstock, New York State. Ivan Mozalevsky ran his engravings studio in Vienna in 1921. Beginning in 1945 various art schools and studios were set up in the displaced persons camps in West Germany. The main schools were in Regensburg, Karlsfeld and Berchtesgaden (Edvard Kozak, Serhii Lytvynenko, Mykola Anastaziievsky, M. Hotsii, and others). In the 1950s several art schools were established by Ukrainian artists in the United States and Canada, including the Ukrainian Art Studio in Philadelphia (directed by Petro Mehyk from 1952), Myroslav Radysh’s school and Liubomyr Kuzma’s school in New York, Petro Sydorenko’s school in Toronto, Yuliian Butsmaniuk’s school in Edmonton, and Kateryna Antonovych’s school in Winnipeg.

Arts education in independent Ukraine after 1991.
Following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, the transition to a market economy in the early 1990s reshaped the relationship between the state and the education sector. The previously centralized system of arts education, whereby the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and other central agencies exercised full authority, shifted toward greater regional and institutional autonomy. Tekhnikums, schools, and colleges of arts and culture were reclassified as higher educational institutions with I–II levels of accreditation. The Law of Ukraine ‘On Education’ (1991), along with subsequent regulations from the Ministries of Education and of Culture and Arts, expanded institutional independence in areas such as managerial and teaching staff appointments and the determination of training programs. In 1998 Ukraine introduced a tiered system of higher education aligned with European standards. It consisted of three stages or cycles: an initial two-year cycle focused on professional orientation, a second cycle of two to three years dedicated to advanced professional training, and a final one-year cycle designed for specialized research preparation. The revised structure established new program lengths: 2–4 years for junior specialists (first cycle), 4–5 years for bachelors and specialists (second cycle), and one year for the newly introduced master’s degree (third cycle). This system brought Ukraine closer to prevailing European educational models.

In present-day Ukraine, the national policy in the area of arts education is regulated primarily by the laws of Ukraine ‘On Education’ (the current law enacted in 2017 replacing the law from 1991) and ‘On Culture’ (2011) as well as by the laws of direct effect, including ‘On Preschool Education,’ ‘On General Secondary Education,’ ‘On Extramural Education,’ ‘On Vocational Education,’ and ‘On Higher Education.’ Arts education in Ukraine is structured across four levels: primary, specialized, professional pre-university, and higher arts education, which train students in different types of arts, such as music, fine arts, and choreography. Primary programs are offered in art schools, music schools, and choreography schools alongside general primary and lower secondary studies. Specialized programs (second level) provide deeper artistic training in arts lyceums in parallel with full general secondary education. Professional pre-university education (third level) is delivered through arts colleges that prepare students for professional practice and award junior bachelor degrees. Higher arts education (fourth level) is offered by universities and academies that train advanced specialists and confer degrees from bachelor through doctoral levels. Elementary arts education is also offered outside of the formal schools, drawing significant participation from children of all ages. In 2012, for instance, 1,496 extramural institutions of different specializations and types served approximately 1.3 million children, representing over 59 percent of elementary school students, 30 percent of middle school students, and 8–10 percent of high school students. Arts-focused institutions—studios, centers, clubs, and galleries—formed the largest category, with 872 organizations enrolling 33,740 children. Students of general secondary schools also take arts classes, including music, fine arts, and art culture. Arts education in Ukraine is supervised by the State Agency of Ukraine for Arts and Art Education (Derzhmystetstv). Established in 2019, the agency’s activities are directed and coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine through the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications.

The number of primary specialized arts schools under the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine rose from 1,488 to 1,593 between 1991 and 1996, then declined slightly and stabilized by 2005. By 2007 the total stood at 1,468 and continued to fall to 1,457 by 2012. Following the Russian occupation of the Crimea and parts of Donbas, the sector experienced further contraction, reaching 1,296 schools in 2017 and 1,272 in 2019–20. Of these, 702 were music schools, 445 combined schools, 99 art and drawing schools, and 7 choreography schools. These institutions enrolled approximately 40 percent of all children participating in extracurricular arts education. Additionally, seven arts lyceums—known as specialized secondary arts boarding schools until 2021—prepare students for higher arts education in academies and universities. Four focus on music (in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv), two specialize in visual arts (in Kyiv and in Opishnia, Poltava oblast), and one in choreography (in Kyiv).

In the 1990s Ukraine had one higher learning institution in the field of visual arts (in Kyiv), along with seven art schools on the secondary education level. These specialized art schools were subsequently accredited at the 1st and 2nd levels and granted art college status by 2020, in accordance with the 2020 Cabinet of Ministers resolution on the Professional Arts Colleges. In the 2010/11 academic year, 70,468 students were enrolled in arts programs at higher educational institutions under the Ministries of Culture and Education, 72 percent of whom were women. This means approximately 50,737 women and 19,731 men pursued arts studies, indicating a 2.6:1 female-to-male ratio. Musical arts (31 percent or 22,000 students) and design (26 percent or 18,000 students) were the most common specializations. Together, these two fields accounted for 48 percent of all arts students, demonstrating a strong concentration in applied and performing arts. More than 2,000 students pursued master’s-level studies in the arts across 42 institutions. Of these programs, design represented the largest share at 31 percent, implying about 620 design master’s students, while art restoration accounted for only 3 percent (approximately 60 students). Beginning in 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian war in the Donbas and the ensuing economic crisis led to a decline in both arts education institutions and student enrollments. This decline stemmed from the loss of institutions in the occupied regions and broader population decreases. A few arts institutions were transferred from the occupied areas to Ukrainian-controlled territory, while 88 arts schools (6.3 percent of Ukraine’s total) and 9 colleges (13 percent) that were in communal ownership remained under occupation. Additionally, the deteriorating economic conditions particularly harmed arts programs. The number of primary specialized arts schools declined from 1,489 in 2000 to 1,296 in 2017 and 1,265 in 2022, with a particularly sharp drop after 2014. Despite this, student enrollment remained stable between 2000 and 2015, increasing slightly from 295,700 to 301,700. By contrast, enrollment in arts- and culture-related higher education programs fell between 2010 and 2016—from 72,200 to 51,100 across all institutions, and from 23,300 to 15,500 in dedicated arts universities and academies. In 2017 Ukraine had 1,296 elementary specialized arts schools serving 306,900 students, six arts lyceums enrolling 2,200 students, 51 arts colleges with 17,000 students, and 15 arts and culture focused universities and academies enrolling 15,500 students. Institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture—arts colleges, universities, and academies—accounted for 10.4 percent of all higher education institutions in Ukraine. Within this scope, the Ministry of Culture oversaw 15 arts universities and academies, including such visual art institutions as the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, and the Lviv National Academy of Arts. Design is the most sought-after undergraduate program in arts and culture.

Since the onset of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the country’s system of arts education has sustained extensive damage. By April 2024, 48 arts schools and two arts colleges in Bakhmut and Mariupol had been completely destroyed, while an additional 72 arts schools and one lyceum were damaged. Several major universities and academies, including the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts and Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design, also suffered major damages. Most of the affected institutions are located in Donetsk oblast, Kharkiv oblast, Kherson oblast, Kyiv oblast, Sumy oblast, Mykolaiv oblast, and Chernihiv oblast. As of November 2025 a total of 187 arts education institutions had been destroyed or damaged by Russian troops, and at least 113 arts schools and six arts colleges remain under temporary occupation.

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Serhiy Bilenky, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, Vadym Pavlovsky

[This article was updated in 2026.]