Luhansk Oblast Organization of the National Artists Union of Ukraine

“Today an artist must make such culbites to survive… One needs to invest so much money in canvases, frames, and paints just to create a painting. Then one has to be able to sell it! Today artists are loved for glamour because this is in the forefront of public tastes. If yesterday ideology dictated art, today it is money, and artists sell themselves. There is no other choice. However, the situation in Luhansk is a bit better. We have preserved all the workshops and property of the National Artists Union. This gives us an opportunity today to gather money for books, for exhibitions. […]. Yes, today we live in a situation of a “test of time”. But we have the artists’ brotherhood. I want it to remain”, - told Nadiya Monastyrska, the chief of the Luhansk Oblast Organization of the National Artists Union of Ukraine, in an interview for OstroV in 2008.