MYKOLA BABAK FOUNDATION

Dear friends!
On behalf of the Mykola Babak Foundation, we sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025!
This year, the Christmas star illuminates our path with faith, hope and love – those indomitable forces that sustain us in the most difficult times.
We are especially grateful to the Defense Forces of Ukraine, who stand guard over our freedom every day. Thanks to their courage and dedication, we can celebrate Christmas, preserve our traditions and work for the good of our homeland.
May the new year bring peace and victory to our country, strengthen every family, and together we will continue the great work of preserving and glorifying our rich cultural heritage, creating beauty and good deeds for the sake of Ukraine and the whole world.
With faith, hope and love,
Mykola Babak Foundation
✨ Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Glory to the heroes! 🎆
The design of the greeting uses
The folk painting “Faith, Hope, Love”.
Chernihiv region. 50s of the 20th c.
Collection of the Foundation.

The National Center “Ukrainian House” presents the exhibition “NAIVE IS FREE”, which represents more than 300 unique works of Ukrainian naive art from the collection of the Mykola Babak Foundation.
Naive art created by unknown masters is distinguished by freedom from canons, immediacy, bright individuality and sincerity, which opens up new ways of seeing the world.
Ukrainian folk painting and embroidery, folk icon and rural photography demonstrate the inexhaustible wealth of creative imagination and a deep connection with traditions. All three components of the exhibition are important visual elements that form a holistic picture of the macrocosm of a traditional home, creating a unique atmosphere where aspects of everyday life, religious ideas and folk art are organically intertwined, defining the aesthetic and spiritual structure of the Ukrainian home.
The works of naive art come from the private collection of Mykola Babak, a well-known cultural and public figure, collector, and founder of a charitable foundation whose activities are aimed at preserving and popularizing Ukrainian culture.
The exhibition “NAIVE IS FREE” is a story about freedom of expression that does not require recognition or approval. We invite you to a world where simplicity becomes strength, and sincerity is the highest value!
The exhibition will open on December 12 at 6:00 PM.
Curators: Mykola Babak, Tetyana Voloshyna, Veronika Ganiechko, Alisa Hryshanova.
Scientific consultant: Oleksandr Naiden.
Video mapping: Mykola Marusyk.
Organizer: National Center “Ukrainian House” in cooperation with the Mykola Babak Foundation.

The Mykola Babak Foundation received a grant for the implementation of the “Artification 2.0” project from the NGO Other Education and zusa within the framework of the “Culture helps” program, which will be implemented by the recently created Center for Creative Industries. The project is aimed at improving the psycho-emotional state of compatriots who were forced to change their place of permanent residence due to the war.
During the implementation of the project, group art therapy and master classes will be held. Art therapy sessions will be held in cooperation with teachers of the Faculty of Psychology and the Center for Mental Health of ChNU named after B. Khmelnytskyi. Master classes on various traditional and modern art practices will be held on the basis of the Cherkasy Regional Art Museum.

On October 1, 2024, the cultural event “Cherkasy. Chronicles of the war and the rear” was held at Cherkasy State Art Museum. The event is implemented within the scholarship program of the Department of Education and Humanitarian Policy of the Cherkasy City Council.
Event organizer: Mykola Babak Foundation.
Program of the event:
1. Presentation of the photo installation “Cherkasy. Chronicles of the war and the rear”.
2. A dialogue platform with the participation of representatives of state authorities, the military chaplaincy service, civil society organizations, mass media and other institutions regarding their activities aimed at helping the defense forces of Ukraine.
3. Performance by pupils of the Children’s Art School named after V. Talakh.
4. Author’s tour of the People’s Artist, laureate of the National Taras Shevchenko Prize Mykola Babak with the exposition of the special project “The Price of Freedom”, created with the grant support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

The purpose of the event: strengthening the morale of citizens, supporting the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people against russian aggression and presenting success stories of authorities, public organizations and other institutions in the field of assistance to the defense forces of Ukraine in order to share experience, strengthen cooperation and develop a strategy for further work to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities.

During August-September 2024, the Mykola Babak Foundation implemented a grant project with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
Within the framework of the project, the Center for Creative Industries was created on the basis of the Cherkasy National University named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, which is designed to introduce non-formal education into the educational process of the university with the aim of developing cultural and creative industries.
During the implementation of the project, equipment and technical means were purchased for the Center, communication platforms were created, and educational events (trainings and workshops) were held, in which university students and youth of the city of Cherkasy took part.
The physical space of the Center for Creative Industries will soon open, which will continue to hold educational events in the field of cultural and creative industries for students and the city’s youth.

The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation supported the project of the Mykola Babak Foundation to create a Center for Creative Industries on the basis of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Cherkasy National University. All details regarding the implementation of the grant #запидтримкиUKF will be posted on the Foundation’s information platforms.

On August 3, Cherkasy hosted the Razom Dijemo (Together We Work) Fest, which featured civil society organizations with experience in cooperation with the institutions of the European Union.

The Mykola Babak Foundation was invited to participate in the Fest to present its activities, because the charitable organization has successful cases of implementing projects with grant support from European countries.
At the beginning of the war, the Foundation appealed to the Europa Nostra organization (a pan-European federation of associations created for the purpose of popularizing and protecting the cultural heritage and natural environment of Europe) with a request for help in preserving the Foundation’s unique collections. Support came from the Dutch Prince Claus Fund, which financed the manufacture of containers, the purchase of packaging materials, the transportation of art objects and other measures aimed at preserving collections of Ukrainian folk icon paintings of the 18th – 20th centuries, naive paintings of the 20th century, rural photographs of the 19th – 20th centuries and other artifacts totaling more than 15,000 items.
The Mykola Babak Foundation thanks the Prince Claus Foundation for its support in preserving items of traditional Ukrainian art, which is an integral part of pan-European art.
We thank the organizers of the Fest, the Representation of the European Union in Ukraine in partnership with the NGO “Against Corruption” for the opportunity to present the Foundation’s activities!
We thank the EU countries for their support of domestic public organizations and for their solidarity with Ukraine!

On March 15th, 2024, in Kyiv, awards were presented to projects that were included in the collection of successful stories of cooperation between civil society organizations, business, and authorities. The Mykola Babak Foundation was included in this collection for the second time, and this time the project manager of the Foundation, Veronika Ganiechko, received an award for the project “Joint force: assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the IDPs.” 115 projects from 21 regions of Ukraine participated in the competition for the best stories of cooperation. The collection included 37 stories, among which Cherkasy was presented by the Mykola Babak Foundation.

Within the framework of the implemented project, the Foundation handed over thousands of tactical medical devices to the defense forces of Ukraine, as well as about 30 tons of food kits to internally displaced persons.

The text of the collection can be found at the link.

We congratulate our native Cherkasy Region on the 70th anniversary of its foundation!

Cherkasy Region was created on January 7, 1954. It included three cities of regional subordination (Cherkasy, Smila, Uman) and the territories of 30 districts of Kyiv, Poltava, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia regions.

Photo by an unknown photographer.
At the Festive Table.
Cherkasy region, Zolotonosha district,
village of Kropyvna.
August 1, 1954
Collection of the Foundation.

Dear Friends! We congratulate you on the coming New Year 2024! Thank you to everyone who, together with the Foundation or individually, worked and helped the defense forces of Ukraine, as well as our fellow citizens who were forced to escape from the war, and made their own contribution to the approach of Victory.

We believe that Ukrainians will be able to tame the dragon, a symbol of the coming year, as Saint Mykyta was once able to do.

Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine! We will win!

The icon “St. MYKYTA”.
The second half of the 19th c.
Cherkasy region (Budyshche village of Lysyansky district).
Collection of the Foundation.