Culture Bridges is a three year programme funded by the EU to support the development of the cultural sector in Ukraine and to enable it to engage more effectively with cultural organisations and operators in the EU Member States. This will improve international cultural relations, and strengthen intercultural dialogue as well as economic and cultural links within Ukraine, and between Ukraine and the EU.
Culture Bridges entails the following activities:
- 21 projects (“international cooperation projects”) and 60 travel grants (“international mobility”) to increase cultural mobility and exchanges between Ukraine and EU member states.
- 15 projects to increase cultural mobility and cooperation between the regions of Ukraine (“national cooperation projects”).
- 5 joint EU / EUNIC cultural projects in Ukraine (e.g. European Film Festival)
- Cultural management skills and seed funding: 10 workshops to develop the project management capacity of around 250 emerging / regional cultural operators in Ukraine and funding 20 cultural projects.
- Creative Europe support: organisation of 10 workshops (250 participants) across Ukraine to enhance application development skills for Creative Europe (“capacity building”) and organisation of 2 study visits to the EU.
- Creation of a TV programme, providing a format and space for knowledge, experience and values sharing between EU (particularly Central Europe) and Ukrainian cultural actors.
GAZ, an opera-dystopia
NOVA OPERA is a group of young Ukrainian artists aiming to search for new ways of developing of music theatre. Within the framework of the Culture Bridges International Cooperation Project grants, the artists reinterpreted the creative work of the Ukrainian theater reformer Les Kurbas, and together with director Virlana Tkacz created the GAZ opera-dystopia, which premiered at the Ivan Franko Drama Theater in Kyiv in June 2019. Read more about the project.
