The Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund has been established to support ‘artists, curators and other cultural workers to exercise their right to live, be safe and continue their professional activities’. UAEF provides one-time financial aid for cultural workers and a limited number of 3 month stipends. Their mission is to support the continuity and development of the Ukrainian cultural process during the war.
CEO of UEAF Ilya Zabolotnyi reflected passionately, ‘The world drawn attention to us because of the bloody tragedy of war. But now it’s our role to speak subjectively, confidently about ourselves, our history, culture, and present to the world the phenomena of a brave country with a thousand-year history…’
We cannot wait for the end of the war to start dreaming and planning the future. We must act today. – Zabolotnyi, CEO of UAEF
One of the beneficiaries, Svitlana Demchenko Deputy Director for scientific work of the Galagan Art Museum, Chernihiv, Ukraine explained ‘For me, the museum is not only a place of work – it is already a significant part of my life and myself. Therefore, the first efforts from the beginning of the full-scale invasion were aimed at what museum employees should do in such a situation: to secure the collection.’
The UAEF initiative is working at a grass-roots level as well as bolstering the organisations and workers who decided to stay in Ukraine in order to preserve the cultural heritage of their area, for example museums, private collections and architectural monuments. UEAF also states that they serve to ‘globally promote contemporary Ukrainian culture as a powerful instrument for protection of the values of democracy and freedom in the world.’
Visit their Instagram page to learn about creative practices in Ukraine and the people behind the country’s art, museums, theatre, TV, music and so on.
We’ve reported on the potential of art in devastating times and the UAEF is another example of the arts as a window to humanity. The Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund is made possible in collaboration with (MOCA) Museum of Contemporary Art NGO, in partnership with Zaborona, The Naked Room and Mystetskyi Arsenal.
UAEF accepts donations from around the world, even in crypto currency!