A year ago, on 24 February 2022, the world was shaken by the horror of war in Europe. Since that day, military aggression by Russian forces against the sovereign state of Ukraine has brought untold destruction and caused one of the largest migration waves in Europe since World War II. The ELIA community, art universities and art academies across many nations responded immediately with acts of solidarity and compassion, opening their doors to thousands of students, staff, and teachers who no longer felt safe in Ukraine. We were deeply concerned for the well-being of Ukrainian civilians, in particular artists, students and academics in the arts and their families, as well as those in Russia peacefully protesting the war. 

 

During the spring of 2022, we invited our colleagues from Ukraine to conferences in Bratislava and Tallinn, where Ukrainian arts academy leaders told their stories of terror, violence, and the violation of human rights. They also shared the astonishing resiliency of their communities – students and teachers in art disciplines who have fought and continue to fight hard to keep on studying and making art. The ELIA community heard about students who, hand-in-hand with their teachers, took charge of protecting their cities, schools, and cultural heritage. Many of them stayed in Ukraine. Living in fear became their new normal. In the short documentary film “Creating in Conflict,” commissioned by ELIA last November, Lviv National Academy of Arts student, Vita Chuprovska states, “I am 22, and I understand that I possibly can die, not making it to my 30s…We are defending being ourselves. We are defending our cultural heritage.”

As the arts education community in Ukraine called for support, an offer came. The Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation, in collaboration with ELIA, announced its largest gift to date to support art students and arts universities in Ukraine. The scheme, known as the UAx Platform, is building new networks of support for war-affected students who have remained in Ukraine. UAx focuses on supporting these artists and their academies so they can continue their studies and build their practices. Over the next three years, up to fifteen Ukrainian Higher Arts Education institutions will join ELIA and become part of the UAx Platform in partnership with sister schools who are also ELIA members. 

UAx kicked off in Helsinki in November at the ELIA Biennial 2022, where we welcomed our new members, colleagues based in Ukraine, to the UAx Project. It was a moving time, which marked the forming of a purposeful and passionate community of support and solidarity.

On 24 February 2023— the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we stand united with colleagues and friends in Ukraine and hope for peace and recovery. 

Susanne Stürmer Rebecca Duclos