Events in the new reality

Ukrainian and international managers and curators of important literary, book and cross-disciplinary events of the world will be sharing their experience and discussing  events in the new reality. The Alteration: Festival to Festival Online Programme that will take place on May 5th – 7th is organised by the team of the Book Arsenal and the Ukrainian Institute and supported by the European Union.

The Alteration: Festival to Festival Online Programme

Key questions will include:

• Where is the festival movement heading nowadays?
• How can literary festivals of different countries cooperate and interact?
• How can social impact be achieved, and how to build relationships with communities in a pandemic?
• What online tools and formats proved to be successful?

“This first sectoral event of the Alteration programme sets a high standard of organisation and participation. It involves major European book festivals and their most advanced Ukrainian peers. We look forward to a discussion that will highlight best practices and survival strategies for literature festivals, through the pandemic lens and beyond”, said Tetiana Shulha, sector manager for culture at the European Union Delegation to Ukraine.

The project contributes to the development of international relations within the professional community and to better recognition of Ukraine on the international culture scene. Among its goals are the following: establishing contacts with international institutions / festivals / exhibitions and implementing the program with educational components to enhance the competencies of Ukrainian and foreign participants.

“Literary managers from London or Vilnius now meet the same challenges as their colleagues from Kyiv or Lutsk: how to create quality content and reach the audience in the context of social distancing, how to ensure the unforgettable atmosphere of connectedness. We offer the participants a sincere conversation about the effectiveness of tools and instruments, ways to interact with communities and stakeholders, to form the visitors’ experience at a distance or within quarantine restrictions”, said Oksana Khmeliovska, Curator of the Professional Development Programs at the Book Arsenal Festival.

Ukrainian participants will have a chance to get acquainted with international colleagues and to explore  future cooperation with them.

“We wish the cooperation between Ukrainian and international festivals to grow and expand bilaterally – so that Ukrainian festivals are integrated into the global context, and foreign festivals work more closely with Ukraine. When the world has gotten even closer thanks to the online, we cannot lose the opportunity to make the communities acquainted and help them network”, said Anastasia Denysenko, Literature Programme Manager at Ukrainian Institute.

The International Book Arsenal Festival has been held annually since 2011. It is an important cultural event in Ukraine, where the book, music, performative and visual art scenes interact, important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture, are raised and reflected, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors. The festival is organised by the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The project takes place within the professional development programs of the Book Arsenal Festival.

The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The mission of the Ukrainian Institute is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. We facilitate international connections between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

Background: The event is implemented within the framework of Alteration Programme. It consists of a series of online events aimed at supporting the cultural and creative sector to recover after the covid crisis. It is run by the Ukrainian Institute and supported by the EU via the Cultural Relations Platform (CRP). CRP is an EU-funded project launched in April 2020, designed to support the European Union to engage in international cultural relations. It provides a renewed approach based on a set of shared principles, and new activities, aiming to promote and facilitate sustainable cultural exchanges, people-to-people activities, and co-creation processes between Europeans and citizens from countries all over the world. The CRP activities range from policy support for EU Institutions to supporting cooperation between European and global cultural and creative sectors as well as strengthening communities of practitioners through dedicated trainings and enhanced exchanges.

For more information, please contact: [email protected], [email protected].