‘A Discovery Guide for Recovery’ – a project co-funded by Creative Europe – has just launched an open call for six artists (including two Ukrainians) interested in co-designing with Ukrainian communities a ‘non-touristic’ guidebook on the present and future of Ukraine.
The project aims at supporting artists and cultural organisations in Ukraine, and to showcase Ukrainian culture and resilience to a wider audience. Taking inspiration from the ‘Sarajevo Survival Guide’ produced by a collective of artists in 1992 during the siege of the city and the ‘Nonturismo’ methodology for art-based community engagement in rural and fragile areas, for two years (January 2025 – December 2026) the project engages local communities, Ukrainian at-risk and international artists in a collective drafting process. The co-created result will be a provocative artistic guidebook of the Ukrainian district of Bakota, that helps the international community to navigate the complexity of the present times of war in Ukraine. The guide will be edited by a professional publisher and will be distributed throughout Europe in festivals and book fairs.
‘A discovery guide for Ukraine’ call for artists is open to individual artists working with any media and who are citizens or permanent residents of all EU eligible countries including Ukraine.
Artists will be hosted for a two-week art residency at Bakota Hub, a cultural centre in Horaivka, Khmelnytskyi Oblast (Southwestern of Ukraine), created on the basis of a former abandoned school and used in the two past years as a shelter for internally displaced people.
The selected artists will receive the following:
- A grant of 3,000 EUR to support their project
- Hospitality and travel to Bakota Hub
- Participation in a three-day capacity-building activity in Warsaw from 14–17 July 2025 (travel costs covered by the project partners), focusing on art and community-based methodologies
- Artistic curatorial and tutoring feedback sessions
- Networking and exchange opportunities
- Inclusion of their artwork in an international publication
- International dissemination of the publication at festivals and book fairs
