Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk: Passers-by

Grant Programs

Key Work: Open call for individual artists

RIBBON is the first international art platform operating specifically in Ukraine. It works to ensure that contemporary artists and cultural actors are resourced, supported and connected within and across their milieu. RIBBON aims to mobilize funding to endorse those artists, creatives and institutional leaders who take personal responsibility and initiative to resist destruction and disintegration brought by war, and have artistic vision and power to transform and unite communities.

In 2025, following the success of its first grant competition “Full Short: A Short Film Contest to Support Ukrainian Filmmakers” realized in late 2024, RIBBON started to develop a variety of new grant opportunities to support Ukrainian artists, art museums and authors with a total grants budget of approx. $250 000 - $300 000.

KEY WORK is the latest grants program of RIBBON International to support the arts in Ukraine. It was launched in July 2025 in partnership with Jam Factory Art Centre with two open calls for

• Individual artist projects in diverse disciplines

• Independent artist-run spaces and initiatives in Ukraine.

Artists and artistic communities are at the very heart of the KEY WORK / Grants for the Arts Program, which RIBBON conceived to fill the gap between the decline of overall “emergency” support to the artists in Ukraine and their ongoing struggle for continuity of artistic practice in a war-affected environment. Its goal is to encourage individual resilience, as well as, with innovative approach to grantmaking, to support those non-hierarchical grassroots artistic initiatives that are focused on developing creative communities and spaces in Ukraine.

The organizers received an impressive total of 282 applications (185 applications for individual artist grants, 87 applications from artist-run initiatives, and 10 more belated submissions), covering a broad range of artistic disciplines – contemporary visual arts and heritage explorations, painting, graphics, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, photography, sound art and time based, screen med

In recognition of the high quality of the artist’s proposals and challenging selection, RIBBON International is delighted to announce its decision to significantly increase the financial support of the program, allocating additional $60,000 and uplifting its initial budget up to $140 000. The grants will be awarded to 28 individual artists projects (14 more than planned) and 8 artistic initiatives (2 more than planned). We hope this expanded support will have a meaningful impact, enabling us to support an even broader range of creative voices in Ukraine.

The program branch “Individual artist projects in diverse disciplines” offered grants from $1,000 to $3,000 and was conceived for the artists who have an idea for a small, independent personal project that is important for the development of their artistic practice and can be implemented by April 2026. The program embraced diverse art disciplines and had no thematic restrictions, but encouraged artists to present their experiences and perspectives on cultural and social challenges that are essential to understanding contemporary life in Ukraine, the daily realities of its struggle for independence, peace, and reconstruction. Types of activities supported include creation of an artwork for exhibition, organization of a contemporary art exhibition or other event, artistic research and publication, and implementation of online projects representing individual artistic practice or artistic research projects.

The other KEY WORK program branch - “Independent artist-run spaces and initiatives in Ukraine” – was designed to support collaboration between the artists and their environment, where the exchange of ideas, presentation of works and issues, intellectual debates, and the creative process ensure the viability of artistic practice and strengthen individual resilience through community, helping to rediscover the meaningfulness and means for continuing one's personal creative path. Grant amount was set from $2,000 to $8,000, with number of applications supported from 5 to 15, depending on their quality and budget. Proposed projects had to be related to networking, development, programming, and support for artist-run spaces, studios, laboratories and other meeting places for the artistic community, with activities that may include, but are not limited to open art studios, temporary or pop-up galleries, “apartment galleries”, art residencies for the creation of artworks, various collaborations between artists, public talks with artists, performances, exhibitions, or other events, zine publications, artistic research.

Both competitions gave special attention to those initiatives developed for/with/or involving veteran artists and those performing their defense duties, as well as internally displaced artists, writers, and curators, and those whose creative space and opportunities to work have been affected by the circumstances of war. Among the eligibility restrictions were project’s location that has to be in Ukraine, its non-commercial character and half-year timeline for implementation.

Individual artist projects in diverse disciplines

Recipients:

Olena Subach / ОленаСубач - New Boundaries of My Body
Olena Turiyanska / ОленаТурянська - Dialogue with Olena Kulchytska
Daryna Mamaisur / ДаринаМамайсур - Eyelashes and Sand Crystals
Ksenia Rybak / КсеніяРибак - Politics of Filtration
Vitaliy Matukhno / ВіталійМатухно - Earth Over the Head
Pavlo Kovach / ПавлоКовач - Recipes
Anastasiia Falileyieva / АнастасіяФалілеєва - Palace of Culture
Volodymyr Kuznetsov / ВолодимирКузнецов - Volunteer Kitchen
Alina Gorlova / АлінаГорлова - Forest
Olena Siyiatovska / ОленаСіятовська - Running Earth
Svitlana Kosheleva / СвітланаКошелєва - Beam
Zhenya Oliynyk / ЖеняОлійник - This Can Happen Here
Eliza Mamardashvili / ЕлізаМамардашвілі - Dad's Garden
Vartan Markari'yan / ВартанМаркар'ян - Frontier of Silence
Artem Vusyk / АртемВусик - Return of SHCHUR
Dasha Podoltseva / ДашаПодольцева - Museum of Forgetting
Daniil Nemyrovskyi / ДаніілНемировський - Red. Green. Blue
Taras Ibragimov / ТарасІбрагімов - ON THE EDGE
Maryna Brodovska / МаринаБродовська - Big Deal
Dariya Molokoiyedova / Дар'яМолокоєдова - My Life is a Ruins
Yuriy Pikush / ЮрійПікуш - Solum
Dmytro Prutkin / ДмитроПруткін - Persona Obscura
Ostap Manuliak / ОстапМануляк - Technological Walls
Nadiya Kelm / НадіяКельм - Data Silence
Maksym Khodak / МаксимХодак - Broad "Russkiy"
Anastasiia Leliuk / АнастасіяЛелюк - What was the Core of Experiment
Nastia Shcherban / НастяЩербань - Tender Funeral
Mykyta Shkliyaruk / МикитаШклярук - Queer-folklore of Odesa

Eight Independent artist-driven spaces and initiatives grants, between $2,000 to $8,000

Recipients:

Women artists of Assortymentna Kimnata - First Woman
Kryvyi Rih Center of contemporary culture - RUDA Project 2025
NGO "Youth community of Lysychansk" - After Donbas
PHOTINUS studio - PHOTINUS: New Media Lab
NGO Opera Aperta – Winterreise: Songs of Winter War
Mimogram Laboratory
NGO "Institute of urban culture" - CounTERculture

Jury members:

Sasha Andrusyk is the co-founder and head curator of Ukho, a group that has been at the forefront of presenting contemporary classical and experimental music in Ukraine for over a decade. Ukho explores the audiovisual situation, examining how each concert or intervention reshapes the relationship between sound, space, and perception. Andrusyk's work spans diverse listening formats, including chamber concerts, site-specific performances, audiovisual installations, and contemporary opera. In 2021, she received the Shevchenko Prize for curating and producing the Architecture of Voice cycle, reflecting her interest in urban environments, memory, and gesture. A founding member of Plivka and Pavilion of Culture collectives, she is now launching Kyiv Dispatch, a record label documenting and amplifying Ukraine’s new music landscape.

Oksana Barshynova - art historian, curator, deputy general director for exposition and exhibition work at the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU), Kyiv. Graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, Faculty of Theory and History of Art. Since 2007, she has been working at NAMU; she has consistently been involved in contemporary art in Ukraine - issues of its museumification, archiving, preservation and popularization. Since 2019, she has been developing a strategy, planning and organizing the direction of exposition and exhibition work at NAMU. Her scientific interests include Ukrainian art of the 20th century, contemporary art, regional studies, decolonization/decommunization. In 2022-2023, she worked at the Musée d'Orsay and the National Museum of Fine Arts/Centre Pompidou (Paris) as part of the PAUSE program. Lives and works in Kyiv.

Stanislav Bytyutsky. Cinema researcher, head of the scientific and program department of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center. Curator of the Kyiv Critics Week film festival. Winner of the Kinokolo national film award, as a director and as a curator of film programs.

Ilona Demchenko headed the grant department of the "House of Europe" program, implemented by the Goethe-Institut, for six years. She has over 15 years of experience in the field of culture and arts and has carried out a number of influential cultural and artistic initiatives in Ukraine and Europe. Previously, she was part of the CCA Foundation team and coordinated the Culture2025 initiative, supported by the European Union. Since 2022, Ilona has produced international exhibitions for the PinchukArtCentre — particularly at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Munich Security Conference. In 2024, she curated the exhibitions "Structures of Reciprocity" in Lviv and "Colori Spenti" in Milan. In 2025, Ilona is producing a large-scale project DAKH, which represented Ukraine at the Venice Architecture Biennale and at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.

Lizaveta German, PhD, curator, co-founder of The Naked Room Gallery.

Alona Karavai. Cultural manager, curator and essayist, co-founder of project space Asortymentna kimnata, of residency house Khata-Maysternya and of media about art post impreza. Worked in contemporary art center IZOLYATSIA while it was based in Donetsk, lived and worked in Donetsk, (co)curated several site-specific projects in Ivano-Frankivsk. Since 2022 she has been dealing with urgent art residencies in Ukraine, evacuation of (private) collections and organization of Ukrainian contemporary art exhibitions in Europe. She was awarded the Kairos Prize in 2023, which is a European prize for cultural actors. Fellow of the first cohort of the Socially Engaged Arts program. Key expert in the sector “Art and culture” in frames of the analytical project RES-POL and founder of the School of contemporary art fra fra fra. Since 2023 she has been working with the topic of ties and tension in the Ukrainian art community in Ukraine and abroad. She is working with topics of periphery(ies), absence and local art communities.

Vlada Ralko was born in 1969 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Studied at the Kyiv State Academy of Arts (Fine Arts Department). Member of the National Artists’ Union of Ukraine. In 2019 she received the He for She: Women In Arts Award. 2021 – order «For Intellectual Bravery» by Independent magazine «Ї». Author of research texts, poetry, essays, and critical articles about art and its connection with philosophy and politics. Artistic practices include painting, works on paper, and spatial objects. Since 2014, working on art projects in dialogue with Volodymyr Budnikov. Lives and works in Kyiv and Berlin.

Museum Futures: Grants for Museums and Art Institutions, RIBBON and Mystetskiy Arsenal

OPEN CALL: MUSEUM FUTURE GRANT PROGRAM

RIBBON International, in collaboration with Mystetskyi Arsenal and Art Arsenal Community NGO, announces the launch of Museum Futures, a major new grant program supporting Ukrainian art museums and institutions working to preserve and connect visual art collections with diverse audiences.

The Museum Futures grant program is designed to help museum teams confront the challenges posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. In particular, we aim to provide resources to teams that continue to research art museum collections, develop programs for diverse audiences, build relationships with professional or local communities, and support artists.

RIBBON International is allocating to this initiative of supporting museums $150,000 in 2026.

Focus and objectives of the Museum Futures grant program:

To support creativity, innovation, and professional growth through grants for concept development and content creation aimed at presenting and exhibiting collections — in digital formats, print, and live exhibitions, both in Ukraine and internationally;
To strengthen the Ukrainian museum community by encouraging collaboration and exchange — supporting projects designed to achieve tangible results that can be shared and applied by other institutions (for example, research, models, tools, or new services that can be adopted, adapted, and scaled by others);
To promote cooperation among institutions working with cultural heritage in Ukraine and abroad;
To support transformative museum initiatives focused on developing and implementing trauma-informed approaches.

The open call is open to:

Art museums from all regions of Ukraine;
Non-governmental organizations that work closely with art museums and/or support their activities;
Other museums, archives, and cultural institutions that hold significant visual art collections or present contemporary visual art
(painting, graphics, photography and film, media art);

Please note that the applicant institution must be officially registered in Ukraine and recognized as a legal entity under Ukrainian law.

Grant amount:

From USD 8,000 to 15,000.

Key milestones:

Announcement of the open competition: November 6, 2025
Deadline for submission of applications: November 30, 2025
Announcement of competition results: December 22, 2025
Project implementation period: February–August 2026
Reporting period: September–October 2026

The grant program will be accompanied by educational and networking events for its participants, organized by Mystetskyi Arsenal within the context of its exhibition projects throughout 2026.

Types of supported activities:

Proposed projects may involve research and presentation of visual art collections in museums; building connections between museums and other cultural institutions in Ukraine and abroad; programming and supporting museum spaces or other sites of activity (for example, in cases of forced relocation of a museum or temporary unavailability of its premises).

Activities may include, but are not limited to:

Conducting curatorial or academic research on a museum’s collection and its connections with other collections in Ukraine and abroad;
Preparing new exhibitions or programming other events related to the museum and its collection;
Creating new content related to museum collections or visual art archives—online projects, publications, audio guides, educational initiatives, new or improved audience services, etc.;
Organizing research and art residencies within museums, collaborating with educational initiatives and institutions, artists, and interdisciplinary studios.

Expected outcomes:

Supported projects should contribute to expanding opportunities for the development of Ukrainian museums, fostering communities and networks of support around them, encouraging the professional and creative growth of their teams, presenting curatorial research and new ways of engaging with their visual art collections, and strengthening their connection with audiences.

Jury Members:

Natalia Dziubenko, Head of the Department of Applied Museology at the State Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Bozhena Pelenska, Program and Operations Director at Insha Osvita
Anna Pohribna, Deputy Director for Programs at Mystetskyi Arsenal
Iryna Bilan, Head of Art Arsenal Community NGO
Olga Zhuk, curator, grant program manager at RIBBON International

Key Work , Jam Factory Art Center

MUSEUM FUTURES, Mystetskyi Arsenal and Art Arsenal Community NGO, Kyiv

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