NWAU

Navigating the War as Artists in Ukraine: A Practical Resource is a collection of lessons learned about staying safe in a full-scale war developed in consultation with artists who have lived through the reality of war in Ukraine. Shared and individual traumatic experiences, dangers and threats have forced Ukrainian society to adopt new strategies of existence. Artists, in turn, have changed their approaches to life and work. Work on this publication has started in 2024, two years after the full-scale Russian invasion began, when the experience of living in crisis had become somewhat routine for the society.

Drawing on sociological research methods and the experiences of artists who have found themselves in new circumstances in the midst of war, Navigating the War as Artists in Ukraine: A Practical Resource is a project by Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) NGO inspired by the Artists at Risk Connection’s (ARC) Safety Guide for Artists.

This publication is based on open-source data, research, conversations, and personal observations of the processes taking place in the Ukrainian art and culture sectors under pressure from the Russian invasion and war. 

The preliminary research for the project featured interviews with:

Elmira Ablyalimova

Anatoliy Levchenko

Kateryna Lysovenko

Pavlo Makov

Yulia Manukyan

Natalia Matsenko

Clemens Poole

Max Robotov

Stanislav Turina

Tamara Turliun

Tetyana Filevska,
As well as artists participating in the ARC emergency support programs.

Vision and curating: MOCA NGO team (Yuliia Hnat, Olga Balashova, Ilya Zabolotnyi), and Lisa Korneichuk

Edited by Lisa Korneichuk

Translation and proofreading by Les Vynogradov

Designed by Ostap Yashchuk

Illustrations for the publication are courtesy of the artists, Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) collection based on the Wartime Art Archive and artists from the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) support programs.