Teachers and students of the Faculty of Design participated in the implementation of a joint project with the National Center "Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" (NC "JASU"), which made it possible to significantly simplify the use of Ukrainian folk ornaments in the educational process and the work of designers. Experts of the University and the Academy carried out digitization and vectorization of elements of Hutsul ornaments for use with modern software products.

The agreement on cooperation between KNUTD and the National Center "JASU" was signed in March 2024 by Ivan Gryshchenko, Rector of KNUTD, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, and Stanislav Dovhyi, President of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor.

The curators of the project from KNUTD were Volodymyr Statsenko, Vice-Rector for Digital Transformation, and Kalyna Pashkevych, Dean of the Faculty of Design. Maria Lubinska, a monumentalist artist, PhD in Culture Studies, was the curator from the National Center "JASU".

Students of the department of graphic design and the department of art and fashion design, graduate students of the faculty of design of KNUTD under the leadership of Kalyna Pashkevych, dean of the faculty of design, Olena Gerasymenko, lecturer of department of art and fashion design, Mykhailo Rudenko, Oleksandr Krotevych, lecturers of the department of graphic design, took part in the implementation of the project.

The unique publication "Hutsul Ornament" by the famous graphic artist, researcher of Hutsul folk art and teacher of Lviv Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts Mykhailo Kurylych (1921–1984), edited by his daughter, historian Lesya Dovha (2021), was taken as a basis. Mykhailo Kurylych collected a large number of ornamental elements, their names, and created a graphic album of motifs of the Hutsul ornament and a dictionary of folk terms.

The students and teachers of KNUTD reproduced more than 800 authentic Hutsul ornaments in computer programs and created a basis for the development of a unique site. The site was created to preserve and disseminate knowledge about the Hutsul ornament, its variety, the people who create it, as well as the cultural and social context of life.

 KNUTD students and Lecturers digitized the unique Hutsul ornaments

In May 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy added the practice of protecting the Hutsul ornament to the Inventory of Good Practices for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The practice of protecting "Hutsul ornament (patterns) and related cultural space" is a program that has been presented by the National Center "JASU" since 2000 in order to preserve and disseminate knowledge about the ornament and its variety.

The concluded agreement provides for the expansion of educational, research, innovative, international activities and educational work, therefore we continue to cooperate with our partners from the National Center "Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" for the development and restoration of our state.

02.11.2024