Handling the award’s digital presence
Violetta Shemet joined UN Women in Ukraine as a communications analyst in September 2023, and became part of the team responsible for the Women in Arts Award—the award promoting and supporting the professional advancement of Ukrainian women in culture both nationally and internationally. It also addresses gender stereotypes in Ukraine and worldwide, aiming to eliminate inequalities. Violetta and the team handled overall organization, including communications, campaign logistics, and the gala event in early 2024. That year, she notes, as in the previous year, the award was less connected to the HeForShe movement and instead carried the theme “Women in Arts Award: The Resistance,” symbolizing Ukraine's resistance against the full-scale Russian invasion.
About the HeForShe movement:
HeForShe is a global solidarity movement supporting gender equality, initiated by UN Women at the headquarters level. The movement focuses on engaging men and boys worldwide to advance gender equality across all spheres of life, promoting women's economic empowerment and rights.
"In addition to the usual categories celebrating women in culture, we also recognized women from the cultural sphere who had joined the security sector or volunteered to participate in the resistance efforts and defend our country"—Violetta
Readymag has been the tool for the website since the very beginning of the award in 2019. “The agency who helped create the website found Readymag quite convenient, so when we asked about it while planning the 2024 event, they told us we definitely needed it,” she recalls.
Team and workflow
For large events like the Women in Arts Award, UN Women usually work with an external contractor. In this case, the core team consisted of a PR strategist Maryna Pukhova, who managed copywriting, content creation, and overall workflow coordination; art director Paul Romaniuk, who provided consultation and updated the visual identity; graphic designer Valeriia Ribii, responsible for visuals; and Bohdan Pukhov, who was responsible for the UX/UI design and handled the website’s execution on Readymag.
“I think it was in 2021 when UN Women first reached out to us for support with the Women in Arts Award”—Maryna
"At the time, my business partner Ilya Strelnikov and I were working at HavasPR agency. We successfully handled all the communications for the award, including website support. A few years later, UN Women contacted us again, but by then, Ilya and I had started our own PR agency—Untitled Collective. So, essentially, our communications team has been supporting this project for four years now.”
Engagement and future plans
The 2024 Women in Arts Award communication campaign helped drive engagement, contributing to over 1 million media impressions and 500,000 social media interactions—the website itself had nearly 4,000 users and close to 5,000 views.
For 2025, the team plans to update the website based on the previous designs while maintaining an archive of past events. Readymag will continue to be their tool of choice.
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