IZONE is a creative hub focusing on cultural decentralisation. Having lost their building due to the war, IZONE had to find alternative means for their activities. They transformed a bus to a mobile cultural space and a Creative Europe project to meaningful humanitarian work for the displaced. Having built a steady collaboration with the European Commission, the hub has become a central network channeling European support to the country's creatives.
By Creatives Unite NewsroomFrom the ECHN Creative Hubs Series
IZONE is a creative community aiming at providing remote areas in Ukraine with inclusive and participative cultural spaces. The story of IZONE begins in 2010 with the establishment of a Foundation in Donetsk, East of Ukraine.
"In 2010, despite the lack of interest from the local authorities, our founder decided to invest in the project", explains Mykhailo Glubokyi, Development Director of the IZONE - Izolyatsia Foundation.
The Foundation initiated activities in 2011. At the time, it was the only independent cultural institution in region offering a large enough range of activities to be considered a hub, while there was no community of active locals going to events.
In 2012, their first FabLab was launched, aiming to build an inclusive and participative space, with an economic impact on the declining industrial city. As Mykhailo said:
By 2013, IZONE already had three exhibition venues, a cinema, a FabLab, residencies and collaborations with many artists, involving local organisations as well as international institutions such as Dutch organisations and the British Council.
In 2014, their building was seized by Russians when they took over the city. "Unfortunately, this territory is still right now used as an illegal prison. This is a huge transformation, from a factory to a creative hub to a horrible torture place". Having lost the space, the Foundation moved to Kyiv and had to start from scratch and find another funding strategy, because as Mykhailo said:
The Foundation received support for consultations from the European Union and collaborated with an advisor from the Ministry of Culture.
During 2018-2019 IZONE extended their decentralization efforts through buying a bus and transforming it into a mobile cultural space. They took most of the bus seats out and installed a system to hang pictures, projectors, sound systems, screens, tables and started to travel around the country. In collaboration with local cultural organisations, the bus visited around 30 cities in one season, then travels were postponed due to COVID19.
After the bus, IZONE decided to move works to Soledar, a small city in eastern Ukraine. "This actually involved developing new economic models for the city of Soledar", said Mykhailo. He added: "At the end of 2021, we were awarded a 1.000.000 euro grant from the European Commission to reconstruct the local house of culture and design a program within it". IZONE aimed at having a council to represent the locals. They had designed a three-year programme aiming at local's empowerment and capacity builiding on cultural and financial management. As Mykhailo said, "This was never implemented because this house of culture was destroyed by missiles in the spring".
"Last year, we contacted the EU Commission and they allowed us to change the grant into a humanitarian aid programme", said Mykhailo. They focused on working with people who were forced to move because their homes were occupied, finding shelter and transportation for approximately 5% of all the shelters in Ukraine.
IZONE also negotiated to use a part of the grant to support 50 cultural projects that would help displaced people. As Mykhailo said:
Mobile FabLabs, are FabLabs installed inside trucks aiming at helping people in small communities. Apart from supporting war-refugees, the idea is scalable to support any smaller communities anywhere, which might feel disconnected.
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The article was first published at Creativehubs.net/ where you can read the full interview of Mykhailo Glubokyi
