National Academy of Arts of Ukraine

The work of both the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Ostroh Academy greatly influenced the development of the arts in Ukraine in the 16th and 17th centuries. Student theatrical and musical productions at both academies during major events on the eve of holidays and festivals helped keep Ukrainian traditions alive while also allowing them to continue to evolve. It was a "pivotal event in national cultural history, establishing a top-tier art education center that fostered national traditions. Despite early political instability, it provided a structural foundation for Ukrainian art education." In 1922, the academy was reorganized and renamed the Institute of Plastic Arts. In 1924, it was renamed the Kyiv Fine Arts Institute. Critics, however, including Fedir Ernst, Mykola Bilyashyvskyy, D. M. Scherbakivskyy, and Mykola Makarenko led to the postponement of NAA's establishment. All of these institutes included scientific research departments on the theory and history of art, post-graduate education, and workshops for art critics, artists, and architects led by Platon Biletskyy, Hryhorii Lohvyn, Volodymyr Zabolotnyy, P. M. Zholtovskyy, and Oleksii Shovkunenko, all of whom also carried out theoretical and practical work there. Numerous foundational works on the history of art and architecture were published during those days, among them the six-volume seven-book History of the Ukrainian Art. In 1960, many of the scientific research institutions within the Academy of Architecture and Building were closed while others were redistributed to other departments. This, along with the eradication of the Ukrainian Art School, wiped out a rich inheritance of traditions and ideas. From the 1970s to 1980s, the art community raised the question of founding another academy and its corresponding institutes a number of times. At last, the notion of organizing a national research-backed art institute was approved by the Ukrainian government on December 14, 1996. The first president of the academy was Andriy Chebykin (1997–2022). ==Membership==

Many of NAA's academy members have been honored by state awards. There are seven Heroes of Ukraine, thirty-three laureates of the Shevchenko National Prize and four laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology among the academy's staff. Twenty-five members also have a doctoral degree and sixty-three are professors. There are three other categories of member: correspondent members, honorary members, and foreign members all of whom, like academy members, have worked with distinction in fine and decorative art, architecture, design, music, theatre, cinema, choreography, art criticism, museum studies, and more. Honorary members include: art critic and pedagogue L. P. Zapasko, architect A. H. Ihnaschenko, composers Alemdar Karamanov and Lev Kolodub, choirmaster Pavlo Muravskyy, builder and social worker O. O. Omelchenko, scientist Volodymyr Semynozhenko, researcher and pedagogue I. M. Sedak (Ukraine), film producer A. L. Zharovskyy, (Germany), sculptor Frank Meisler (Israel), and others. ==Structure==