After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, among the displaced population are many creatives who found their new homes in other European countries, while others stayed in Ukraine and continued their creative work despite all odds. On the other hand, some might have been obliged to completely abandon their artistic practice and seek other opportunities. Starting from scratch, reinventing yourself and rebuilding your practice in a foreign country or adapting to the new reality in your own home, certainly requires significant resources, a deep understanding of new contexts as well as creating new connections and building trust. 

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Through this project, we are targeting Ukrainian creators who work with any type of crafts in their home country or across Europe as well as those who had to abandon their practice due to war. We want to make those individuals and collectives more visible and further empower them in building their small businesses and creative practices while gaining important connections and recognition at the European level. The aim is to create new support systems and in collaboration with our existing community and partners offer a wide range of opportunities based on the needs of creators, consisting of:

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• online capacity building scheme (individual and/or collective mentorship) 

• creator-in-residence, one month residency in Split, Croatia, including two workshops open for public

• three-week upskilling programme for displaced creators in Ukraine working with textiles with three hybrid lectures (open for public), in Hlyniany

• opportunity to showcase and sell work at Crafts as a Form of Resilience Fair in Matera, Italy, including opening storytelling event and a closing panel