Oleksandr Roitburd, a Ukrainian artist and director of the Odesa Art Museum, has died.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – August 08, 2021 – Ukraine Society and Culture
Alexander Roitburd was born on October 14, 1961, in Odessa.
In 1983 he graduated from the art and graphic faculty of the Odessa Pedagogical Institute.
Since 1993 he has been a co-founder of the New Art Association. From 1993 to 1999 he worked as art director, and from 1999 to 2001 – president of this association.
In 2014 he was a participant of the Euromaidan in Odessa.
At the end of 2017, he won a competition for the position of director of the Odessa Art Museum. Despite the opposition of the deputies of the regional council, who did not vote for his candidacy, on March 19, 2018, the head of the Odessa regional state administration Maxim Stepanov signed a contract with him for 5 years.
On September 4, 2019, the Odessa Regional Council dismissed Oleksandr Roitburd from the position of museum director (before that, there was an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss him in June 2019). The decision was made despite all the achievements of the museum under the new head.
Roytburd then stated that he would appeal the decision and later won in the court of the first instance, however, the appeal was overturned.
The dismissal caused outrage among the people of Odessa. More than a thousand people came to the rally to defend Alexander Roitburd as museum director. Eventually, it reached such proportions that the artist himself called these events “the cultural Maidan of modern Ukraine,” because it was not political or economic issues that brought people together, but cultural ones.
In December 2020, the Odessa regional council revoked the decision to dismiss Alexander Roitburd from the post of head of the art museum.
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Source: Ukrgate
