SWAP: UK/Ukraine residency programme – Oleksandra Kadzevych

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop will host a Ukrainian visual artist for two weeks in September 2019 in a partnership residency with The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, as part of SWAP, organised by Hospitalfield, Arbroath and British Council Ukraine.

For four years, the British Council in Ukraine have been teaming up with the most progressive artistic ventures in Ukraine and the United Kingdom to provide time and support to promising artists and curators from both countries.

In Ukraine, the British Council is working with the Yermilov Centre and the Municipal Art Gallery, from Kharkiv, the Museum of Odesa Modern Art, Lviv’s Jam Factory Art Center and Centre for Urban History, Artsvit Gallery, Kultura Medialna and DCCC from Dnipro City.

In the UK, British Council is working with Hospitalfield, Arbroath (from 2019-) and its partners across Scotland: Cove Park, Argyll; Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire; The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney; Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio; Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. In 2016-2018 the main partner in the UK was Liverpool Biennial.

The objective of the programme is captured in its name – SWAP: Cultures, artistic traditions and trends, innovations in technique, perspective and philosophy cross-pollinate as creative minds travel the breadth of Europe to experience the artistic abundance of geographies both physical and psychological, territories once walled off that are now open for exploration.

The UK side of the programme will support three artists and one curator from Ukraine. Each of the selected participants will have the opportunity to spend four weeks hosted in one of the rural residency programmes in Scotland and the opportunity to spend two weeks in one of three cities: Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee.

The intention of Scotland residency programming is to provide each participant with the opportunity to spend time in both the rural and the city residency facilities.

Following an open call in June, ESW is working with The Pier Arts Centre to select an artist from Ukraine who will become part of our community for the last two weeks in September 2019.

There is also a selection process underway for UK artists to attend residencies in Ukraine, which has followed the same timeline and been promoted by all the partners.