From 5 to 10 June, Lviv hosted the World Art Nouveau Days, an international initiative that brings together cities across Europe to promote the heritage of Art Nouveau and Secession.
This year’s programme in Lviv was dedicated to the theme of women and their role in art, culture, architecture, and heritage preservation. Throughout six days, participants had the opportunity to rediscover outstanding women of the Secession era, learn about their contribution to shaping the cultural landscape, and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the early twentieth century through art, music, architecture, and creative activities.
The festival began with the final stage of the children’s drawing competition “Draw Me Lviv”, which brought together 112 young participants and offered a unique opportunity to see the city through children’s eyes. During the event, an open-air exhibition of the competition entries was unveiled near the monument to King Danylo, allowing residents and visitors alike to discover creative interpretations of Lviv created by the youngest participants.
On 6 June, the exhibition “Galicia Gastronomica” opened at the Art Library. The exhibition invited visitors to explore the everyday culture of Galicia through household objects, tableware, recipes, and culinary traditions that shaped life in the region at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
One of the central themes of this year’s programme was women in Lviv’s Secession movement and their role in the city’s cultural life, art, architecture, and heritage preservation. This topic inspired the floral walk “Women in Lviv Secession”, during which participants discovered little-known stories of women associated with the Art Nouveau era while creating their own Secession-inspired bouquets based on floral motifs found in architecture. Great interest was also generated by the guided tours “Exploring Lviv Secession” and “Solomiya Krushelnytska: A Life in the Style of Secession”, which combined architectural heritage with the story of one of Ukraine’s most remarkable artists.
A special place in the programme was devoted to the world-renowned Ukrainian opera singer Solomiya Krushelnytska. The lecture “Solomiya Krushelnytska in the Era of La Belle Époque” offered visitors an opportunity to learn more about her life and artistic achievements, her connections with Europe’s cultural elite, and Lviv’s place within the artistic movements of the early twentieth century.
A range of interactive events was prepared for families and children. The family quiz combined educational challenges with fascinating stories about prominent women and the history of Secession, while the chocolate workshop encouraged children to creatively reinterpret Art Nouveau ornaments and decorative motifs. During the Art Nouveau painting workshop, participants created their own artworks inspired by the characteristic flowing lines and floral forms of the period.
The festival’s intellectual programme featured a lecture by architect and researcher Ihor Zhuk on Secession and Art Nouveau in European art, as well as the panel discussion “Women Preserving Heritage”. The discussion explored the role of women in researching, promoting, and safeguarding cultural heritage, along with the contemporary challenges faced by professionals working in this field.
The musical programme allowed visitors to experience the atmosphere of the early twentieth century through works by composers of the era. The candlelight concert at the Organ Hall and the event “Music of Secession” became a journey into the world of Art Nouveau, where music complemented the spirit of the age as vividly as architecture and painting.
The festival also featured the opening of Viktoriia Temna’s exhibition “The Gates of Lviv”. The artist’s works offered a contemporary perspective on one of the city’s most characteristic features — its historic gateways, which preserve the memory of different generations and historical periods.
The programme also included an open-air plein-air workshop with students of the Okhra Children’s Creative Studio. The young artists sketched Secession buildings and architectural details, discovering the beauty of Lviv’s heritage through art.
The festival concluded with a screening of the feature film “Modigliani”, dedicated to the life of one of the most influential artists of the early twentieth century. The screening provided a final opportunity to immerse visitors in the artistic world of the Art Nouveau era and bring the rich programme of the World Art Nouveau Days in Lviv to a close.
A special addition to this year’s celebration was a collaboration with the Lviv confectionery Shoco. An exclusive themed dessert inspired by female imagery and decorative Art Nouveau motifs was created specifically for the festival, demonstrating how cultural heritage continues to inspire contemporary creativity and entrepreneurship.
The programme once again proved that Secession heritage remains a vibrant part of the city, capable of bringing together people of all ages through history, art, and shared cultural values.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all partners who helped make the World Art Nouveau Days in Lviv possible and contributed to a rich, diverse, and accessible programme. Special thanks go to Svichado Publishing House, the Ukrainian children’s brand Zibi, Shoco Confectionery, Lviv Chocolate Workshop, Lviv Cultural Hub, Brok Company, Lviv Organ Hall, the Solomiya Krushelnytska Memorial Music Museum, the Art Library, Lviv Film Center “Horikhovyi”, the Peliustka Floral Studio, and the HluzdoHerets team. Thanks to your support, we were able to create a programme that brought together history, art, education, creativity, and contemporary interpretations of Lviv’s cultural heritage.
