In February 2022 when war started in Ukraine, the MakersXchange Project decided to take action and support artists and creative professionals from Ukraine. This is how the idea of the Ukrainian Artists & Creatives Support & Grant Program was born.

MAX (Makers’ eXchange) project is a pilot policy project, co-funded by the European Union, that aims to define and test policies and actions supporting the mobility and exchanges of experience between the cultural and creative industries, creative hubs, maker-spaces, fab-labs and formal and non-formal learning and skills development systems in a cross-sectoral way and embed makers’ mobility schemes for skills development and inclusion into mainstream CCIs support programmes, policies and ecosystems across Europe.

The Ukrainian Artists and Creatives Grant & Support Program is an initiative targeted to cultural and creative professionals from Ukraine who are trying to connect, work and make a living through their creative or artistic practices in a new European country.

The Ukrainian support program was launched on the 18th of June 2022 with an open call and was designed by the MakersXchange team to help Ukrainian CCS' displaced by the war resume their professional life in new conditions. During the two months period of the open call, 167 applications were received from Ukrainian artists and creatives from all over Europe with professional experience in different fields -from painters and filmmakers to UX/UI designers and tattoo artists. 27 program beneficiaries were supported with the grant  of 1.000 euros distributed on a "first come, first serve" basis.

With the help of ECHN members in different countries, program participants were provided with assistance in mobility and networking with the local creative communities, finding accommodation and new jobs, working/rehearsing space and exhibition/performance opportunities, language courses and legal assistance. Tackling with the complex challenges during the Program implementation more closed connections between the ECHN members as well as with the new partners outside of the Network were established.

At the beginning of August 2022 due to the overwhelming amount of applications, MakersXchange had to close the submissions of the program. The team is in the process of planning their future steps.

Discover the motivating stories from the Ukrainian Support Program participants here.