UNESCO supports 14 new cultural projects in Ukraine

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.

UNESCO and the Ukrainian NGO Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA NGO), together with the UEAF, will support 14 new cultural projects in 2024, enabling cultural life to continue and supporting artists across Ukraine. This project had already supported 7 cultural projects shortly after the start of the war in 2022.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. 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.