A new residency programme for Ukrainian arts professionals has been announced today, delivered in partnership between British Council Scotland, Creative Scotland, and the Ukrainian Institute.
Taking place over the next seven months, the pilot project will see six leaders and decision makers from the Ukrainian arts sector visit and stay at arts organisations across Scotland. A bespoke programme will be created for each participant, offering them time away from turmoil and a chance to reflect and think to the future for their own artistic practices, their organisations, and the wider art sector in Ukraine.
The residencies will be based in creative organisations across the country, leading in arts, literature, sculpture, and music. The organisations hosting participants for the project are: Cove Park, Moniack Mhor, Hospitalfield, North Lands Creative, and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
Each residency has been designed to provide valuable time and thinking-space allowing participants to develop their work, take advantage of facilities, workshops, events, and to link-up with Scottish-based creatives to build lasting connections across the creative sector in the UK.
Coming from a range of artistic disciplines, participants are leaders in the arts sector in Ukraine having worked in fields including festival creation, visual arts, design, literature, and music.
The project has been born of out of a Creative Scotland and British Council partnership and as a key legacy project for the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture’s Future Reimaged programme. The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture was launched by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute in 2022 to mark 30 years of UK/Ukraine diplomatic relations. Through a year-long programme of activity, the season has served as a platform for cultural exchange, artistic expression, and cooperation, bringing together a community of artists from Ukraine and the UK.
Veronika Skliarova, a cultural manager, theatre producer and art curator, will be the first participant to travel to Scotland for a residency in July, she speaks to us about her experience over the last year and what she hopes for her time at Cove Park, an international artists residency centre on Scotland's west coast.
She said: “Art and the creative process has played an incredibly important role in Ukraine, especially after 24 Feb 2022, for therapy, trauma response, and helping give artists and communities a voice. Over the last year I have worked on projects including helping evacuate Ukrainian art and developing Anthology24, a set of theatre texts that will help provide a space for witness and expression.
“I hope to find quiet and safe space at Cove Park. My focus for the moment is to study the issue of the "migration" of contemporary Ukrainian art life, which now seems like a divided archipelago, spread around the world. In Scotland, I hope to meet new people, new artists, and to find out more about the inner motivation of people in becoming creators”.
Introducing the residency programme, Anastasiia Manuliak Head of Visual Arts, Ukrainian Institute says:
“A key goal of the UK/Ukraine season of culture has been to enhance cultural exchange between UK and Ukraine and It is wonderful to see that the season has sparked this idea for future collaboration in Scotland. I’m delighted we could offer this opportunity and space for leaders in the Ukrainian arts sector and I’ve no doubt the Scotland residencies project will be a great legacy for the Future Reimaged project.”
Speaking about how the residency project was developed, Norah Campbell, Head of Arts at British Council Scotland adds:
“Over the last 18 months, we’ve heard about the experiences of our counterparts and colleagues in Ukraine and we’ve responded in the best way we know how, by utilising our networks and building connections to support Ukrainian creatives. These residencies will offer a much-needed space for calm and reflection and will be an extremely important and fruitful time for all those taking part.”
Alexia Holt, Director of Cove Park will welcome the first residency participant in July:
“We look forward to welcoming the Ukrainian producer, curator, and cultural manager Veronika Skliarova to Cove Park in July as part of the UK-Ukraine season Future Reimagined. This residency perfectly expresses our core determination to support and work with those most in need of the space we offer, to build and sustain cross cultural connections, and to imagine a peaceful, fairer and more socially just world.”
Find out more about each residency and participant:
Cove Park - Veronika Skliarova.
Cove Park is an international artists residency centre on Scotland's west coast whose residencies support the development of new work by national and international artists, groups and organisations working in all art forms
Veronika Skliarova is a cultural manager, theatre producer, and art curator. She is the program director of the “Parade-fest” (Kharkiv), producer of “Сrimea, 5am” (intersectoral performative project) and Ukrainian Odyssey (performances in 5 cities of Ukraine). After February 2022, Veronika created Anthology24 - collection and publication of texts for theatre written after the start of the full-scale invasion, and "Art therapy force" - large-scale educational project aimed at reorienting the educational programs of creative universities in Ukraine towards the certification of art therapists and the direct work of artists with Ukrainian children, IDPs, veterans.
Hospitalfield - Kateryna Rusetska
An arts centre located in Abroath, Hospitalfield is dedicated to contemporary art and ideas.
Kateryna Rusetska is a co-founder and program curator of the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture (DCCC), NGO Kultura Medialna, experimental music and contemporary art festival Construction. She focuses on creating visual, educational programs, community interactions, and projects related to activism.
During the residency at Hospitalfield, she will reflect on her individual and collective practice to identify a more detailed, meaningful, and effective approach toward interaction with local communities and urban space. Kateryna will also formulate ideas for a comparative and intersectional approach to the (re)construction of Ukraine, which she is thinking about as part of her role in DCCC and which will be explored in a series of workshops to be held in Dnipro fall 2023.
Moniack Mhor - Ostap Slyvynsky
Moniack Mhor is Scotland's National Writing Centre, based in the Scottish Highlands.
Ostap Slyvynsky is a Ukrainian poet, translator, essayist and scholar. He authored five books of poetry and “A War Vocabulary”, a documentary book about the Russian aggression against Ukraine. His books have been published in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Macedonia. Ostap was the first program director of the International Literary Festival in Lviv in 2006–2007. In 2016–2018, he organized the public discussion platform Stories of Otherness (a series of public interviews with writers, intellectualists and civic activists who suffered from different kinds of social exclusion). Since 2021, he has organised the PEN Ukraine’s festival Propysy (The Writings) aimed at novice authors. He was elected the Vice President of PEN Ukraine in 2022.
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop - EtchingRoom1
Located in Newhaven, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop provides support to artists in different ways, including a year-round programme of residencies.
EtchingRoom1 is the artistic group founded in 2016 by two graphic artists Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova in Kyiv, Ukraine. The artists utlise etching techniques and create mosaics and installations.
Kristina Yarosh graduated from the Publishing and Printing Institute of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, from the department of book graphics.
Anna Khodkova graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2016. She works with techniques of etching, linseed, silkscreen, monotypes, and collages.
North Lands Creatives - Ruslan Luchko
North Lands Creative is a studio organisation and gallery in Lybster, Caithness with a focus on contemporary glass.
Ruslan Luchko lives and works in Lviv. In 2015, he graduated from Stryi Art School (Department of Painting). In 2020, he obtained his MA degree at the Glass Art Department at Lviv National Academy of Arts. Ruslan prefers painting and glass in his art, and often refers to other artistic pratices such as performance, media art, and installation. His work is based on the ideas of determinism and human freedom.
The Ukrainian arts residencies are funded by the British Council, The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the Ukrainian Institute.
They continue British Council Scotland’s work building connection, understanding and trust between people in the UK and overseas through arts, education and English language teaching. To find out more about their work in Scotland visit: https://scotland.britishcoun-cil.org/ or follow on Twitter or Facebook.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Rosalind Gould, British Council: +44 (7770 934953 E: rosalind.gould@britishcouncil.org
To find out more about the British Council’s work in Scotland, visit https://scotland.britishcouncil.org/ or follow on Twitter or Facebook.