Society for the Promotion of the Arts

Society for the Promotion of the Arts (Общество поощрения художеств; Obshchestvo pooshchreniia khudozhestv). A philanthropic society of art patrons, established in 1821 in Saint Petersburg. It organized art exhibitions, lotteries, competitions, and sales of artworks; financed trips abroad for artists; and published art textbooks and journals, such as Iskusstvo i khudozhestvennaia promyshlennost' (1898–1902) and Khudozhestvennyia sokrovishcha Rossii (1901–7). It also maintained a museum of applied art and a drawing school (from 1857). The society supported many Ukrainian artists, including Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Soshenko, Apollon Mokrytsky, H. Lapchenko, P. Boryspolets, Kostiantyn Trutovsky, Serhii Vasylkivsky, and Mykola Samokysh. It was active until 1929.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]