From May 7 to 11, 2018, the International Festival “Synthesis of Arts” took place in Bydgoszcz, Poland, with the participation of students and lecturers from the Departments of Design and Drawing and Project Graphics. The festival featured creative meetings with Polish colleagues and an exchange of ideas and perspectives on the future of design.
From September 25 to 30, 2018, as part of the City Day celebrations in Khmelnytskyi, the “Synthesis of Arts” festival was held. This Ukrainian-Polish initiative presented innovative concepts in art and design, uniting diverse artistic disciplines and aesthetic values into a single creative whole.
The autumn festival was organized by the Khmelnytskyi City Council, Khmelnytskyi National University, the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz (Poland), the University of the Arts in Poznań (Poland), the Ukrainian-Polish Center at Khmelnytskyi National University, the Department of Design of the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, and the Department of Design of Khmelnytskyi National University.
The official opening ceremony of the festival took place at the Khmelnytskyi Children’s School of Fine and Decorative Arts. The event was hosted by Mykola Lukianyuk, Associate Professor at Khmelnytskyi National University and head of the student theatre of variety miniatures "Yumodes." Welcoming addresses were delivered by Professor Mykola Skyba, Rector of Khmelnytskyi National University; Halyna Melnyk, Deputy Mayor of Khmelnytskyi; Associate Professor Ihor Kovtun, Head of the Department of Drawing and Project Graphics at KhNU; Franz Mitsinsky, Head of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Branch of the Union of Poles in Ukraine; Inna Yashchuk, Deputy of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council and Dean of the Faculty of Primary Education and Philology at Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy; art historian Liudmyla Rozhko-Pavlenko; and Dr. Franciszek Bromberek of the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz.
The exhibition featured creative works by artists, lecturers, and students from the Department of Design at the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, the Department of Design at Khmelnytskyi National University, and the University of the Arts in Poznań. Exhibits included paintings, fashion design projects, object-spatial and graphic design, advertising, and creative experiments. Collections of fashion design created by students from the KhNU student fashion house, winners of numerous national and international competitions, were also presented.
During the Polish delegation’s visit to Khmelnytskyi, a meeting was held with the university’s administration, including Associate Professor Serhii Matiukh, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs. Discussions focused on prospects for further cooperation between the partner universities. The delegation also visited the Ukrainian-Polish Center at KhNU and held meetings with Associate Professor Nelya Podlevska, Head of the Department of Slavic Philology; Associate Professor Oleh Polishchuk, Director of the Ukrainian-Polish Center; and lecturers Yuliia Serkova and Oksana Dudkovska, as well as students of the department. Dr. Franciszek Bromberek donated a large number of textbooks and encyclopedias to students of the Department of Slavic Philology.
The closing ceremony of the “Synthesis of Arts” festival was also held at the Khmelnytskyi Children’s School of Fine and Decorative Arts.