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UNESCO funds 14 new projects to support creativity in Ukraine
Selected by MOCA NGO and programme experts through an online open call entitled (re)connection UA 2023/24, this initiative, supported by UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund and the UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals, will benefit Ukrainian cultural institutions and artistic projects for a total of US$ 140,000 in funding.
The 14 projects, which cover contemporary art, photography, dance, artistic residencies, opera and exhibitions, will be implemented in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, and other cities. They aim to enable Ukrainian cultural institutions to continue running, support the livelihoods of artists and culture professionals and protect the cultural rights of the Ukrainian people.
Culture has a unique power to unite people and promote resilience in times of crisis. In these challenging times in Ukraine, UNESCO and MOCA NGO are launching a second phase of a programme that aims at empowering artists and cultural institutions to continue their vital work and to prepare the recovery of the cultural sector.
Forced internal displacement has caused local communities from diverse regions to interact, thereby fostering novel forms of collaboration and exchanges. As such, supported projects forge cultural networks across the country amidst the ongoing invasion, notably to build bridges between its Eastern and Western regions, as well as between the South and North of Ukraine. Cultural practitioners are the pivotal figures who nurture these grassroots connections, underscoring the resilience of our cultural sector.
In total, 129 applications were received from Ukrainian cultural institutions across 22 regions of Ukraine, highlighting the scale of the funding needed to support the resilience of cultural and creative industries in the country. The programme complements a range of emergency measures already deployed by UNESCO since the beginning of the war to safeguard tangible and intangible cultural heritage, secure museum collections and combat illicit trafficking in cultural property.
In 2022, the first phase of the programme supported 7 Ukrainian cultural institutions in the development of their creative projects. The beneficiaries contributed to the safeguarding of the cultural life and diversity of Ukraine, as well as collective trauma healing through cultural expressions.
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- Click here for more information on the 14 supported projects
(re)connection UA 2023/24 is the second edition of the programme implemented under the MOCA NGO and UEAF with the support of UNESCO, funded by the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF) and the UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals. We wish to thank HEF donors: the Qatar Fund for Development, the Government of Canada, the Kingdom of Norway, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Estonia, ANA Holdings INC, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Principality of Andorra, the Republic of Serbia.
About Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA NGO) is a non-governmental organization that unites representatives of artistic and expert communities who work with contemporary art in Ukraine and need a new type of museum institution to establish a full-fledged horizontal museum system and platform for expert dialogue. MOCA NGO is a mediator between the professional community (which it coordinates) and governmental bodies. Moreover, MOCA NGO provides the latter with advice on strategy and legal policymaking on wide range of strands: contemporary culture field, cultural heritage, memory practices, decolonization, digitalization, etc, Following the full-scale aggression of Russia against Ukraine, MOCA NGO has been focusing on projects that are particularly relevant during wartime and afterward, specifically the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund, Wartime Art Archive, and the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA).
About UNESCO – With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. UNESCO oversees more than 2000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13 000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2300 people. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.
