Interview for Prague International in English: Ukrainian artists' support programme after the 24Feb2022 - Czech Center Kyiv
As you said, you are now in charge of Czech Centre Kyiv in exile. What is the focus of your work at the moment?
“When I was evacuated I thought we could still go on with our cultural programming back in Ukraine, but of course with the war we had to change everything.
“So, together with my colleagues, we created a residence programme for Ukrainian artists who were heading to the Czech Republic or had already arrived in the country.
“The Czech Centres decided to provide some of them, around 30 people, with financial support for three months of their stay in the Czech Republic just to give them the possibility to work in the field of culture. They are producing a documentary, we have already had two concerts and so on and so on.
“So that was actually a completely new portfolio that I had to build on the basis of financing, detecting the people and administration of all the documents.
“At the beginning it was very hectic, but as soon as my colleagues from Ukraine came to Prague, the process became much smoother. The war started on February 24 and the first fellowship was paid out on February 18.”