Attractions of Kharkiv

The Botanical Garden of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University was founded simultaneously with Kharkiv University in 1804 on the initiative of Count Severyn Potoski. It is the oldest botanical garden in Ukraine. It is an object of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine of national importance.

The first collection was based on a small plot directly on the territory of the university. Currently, the total area of ​​the Kharkiv Botanical Garden reaches about 42 hectares.

The botanical garden has valuable collections of woody and herbaceous plants: more than seven thousand species of local and world flora are presented in the expositions of the departments of dendrology, natural flora, flower and ornamental plants of open ground and tropical and subtropical plants. The botanical garden has over one thousand species and forms of woody and shrubby plants, over one thousand species of herbaceous plants of natural flora, over two thousand species and varieties of flower and ornamental plants, three thousand taxa of tropical and subtropical plants.

Relict species and endemics are of particular value. 15 species are listed in the European Red List, 95 - in the Red Book of Ukraine. About one and a half thousand species and varieties of woody and herbaceous plants were first introduced in the north-east of Ukraine.

The arboretum of the garden is laid out according to the botanical-geographical principle with elements of phytocenoses: expositions "Europe", "Mediterranean", "Siberia", "Far East", "Central Asia", "North America", "China and Japan". Aboriginal flora is presented in the exposition "Northeast of Ukraine".

Herbaceous plants of the natural flora are presented in the expositions of medicinal, ground cover, mountain plants and the system of angiosperm plants of Ukraine. Collections of flower and ornamental plants are collected for the exposition in the form of separate monoculture gardens and combined sections "Annuals" and "Perennials".

Plants of humid tropical forests, humid and dry subtropics, deserts and semi-deserts (trees, shrubs, grasses) are grown in the greenhouse complex. These are representatives of Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, Central and South America, Japan and China. The most widely represented collections are bromeliads, aroids and succulents.

The first, and so far the only, Museum of Women's and Gender History (Gendermuseum) in Ukraine was founded in Kharkiv in 2008 with the support of the Ukrainian Women's Fund, the Global Fund for Women, and the Program for Equal Opportunities and Rights of Women in Ukraine.

The mission of the museum is to promote the ideas of gender equality, create new models of social roles for women and men, and strengthen the international feminist movement.

The Gendermuseum collection includes over 4,000 diverse exhibits collected in Ukraine and transferred from different countries of the world. Among them are documents, books, textbooks, children's toys, discs, personal belongings of gender theorists and practitioners, souvenirs, tools of "light" women's labor, and photographs. The museum's exposition provides an opportunity to experience firsthand how gender construction takes place in society.

The highlight of the project are four panoramas of social roles - panoramas showing the social roles of men and women in different historical eras, photo albums "A World Without Violence".

The Kharkiv Museum of Women's and Gender History is a member of the International Association of Women's Museums.

The Yermilov Center for Contemporary Art was established in Kharkiv in 2012 with the support of the Association of Alumni, Teachers and Friends of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University in the main building of the university. It is named after the famous Kharkiv artist, representative of the Ukrainian avant-garde Vasyl Yermilov.

The design project of the interior space was created by Kharkiv architects Ihor Ostapenko, Inna Pedan and Andriy Khvorostyanov. The two-story site with a total area of ​​1,500 square meters provides unique opportunities for the creation and presentation of artistic projects.

The Yermilov Center promotes the development of contemporary Ukrainian art, its integration into the world art context, supports young authors, and is a communicative platform for Ukrainian and foreign specialists in the field of contemporary art. The center's areas of activity include curatorial projects, art residencies, lectures and discussions, performances, seminars, film and video installations.

"Yermilov Center" also became a venue for the Non Stop Media youth project festival.