The Culture and Identity Strategic Project strengthens Ukrainian culture and supports a unified yet diverse national identity as an essential part of resilience during Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
The project focuses on strengthening social cohesion within communities and between citizens and institutions. It works to address internal tensions, support a shared sense of belonging, and reinforce unity at both community and national levels.
C&I brings together different stakeholders to:
C&I reinforces Ukrainian culture and promotes a pluralistic yet cohesive national identity as key elements of societal resilience during wartime.
The project works across four thematic areas:
The pilot training program provides training modules, technical recommendations, mentorship and financial support for communities recovery projects. Innovative approach provides introducing culturally sensitive lens and including national and local identity elements to hard recovery projects.
Under the CuRe platform, the C&I team supported the launch of the four-module training programme “Culture for Recovery: School for Local Development” as part of the URC 2025 commitment.
The initiative was launched by the Ministry of Culture and supported by the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.
Designed by the Ministry of Culture, NGO Lanka.Pro, and the C&I team, the programme engaged 12 hromadas in developing culturally sensitive and inclusive approaches to recovery.
Through four learning modules, communities combined training sessions with mentorship from the Kharkiv School of Architecture and the Agency for Recovery and Development. These modules helped hromadas strengthen project ideas, improve analytical and design components, and prepare submissions for the DREAM public investment platform.
The initiative is implemented with the support of Lanka.Pro and will culminate in a competitive process where up to four hromadas will receive funding to implement their most successful projects.
This helps ensure that reconstruction efforts respect local identities and cultural heritage.
The promotion of the state grant programme “Vlasna Sprava: Creative Industries” consists of communication and training pillars that aim to increase public awareness about the open call.
C&I supported the communication of the launch of the ‘Vlasna Sprava: Creative Industries’ state grant programme to strengthen the capacity of creative industries and promote business development in the sphere of culture. The initiative is coordinated by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
Communication aims to increase the number of grantees to reach 500 applicants in the following months and strengthen the capacity of the creative sector as a source of social resilience in Ukraine.
Supporting Ministry of Culture, Ukrainian Institute for National Remembrance in development of national memorialisation law and further governmental strategy grants to implement initiatives that promote a shared culture of remembrance and foster unifying rituals and traditions commemorating the Russian-Ukrainian war on the national level.
Laying ground for the documentation of damage and destruction of immovable cultural heritage and looting, theft, replacement and illicit trafficking of the Ukrainian movable heritage on controlled and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Supporting the Ministry of Culture in digitalisation of cultural heritage, updating the software of the existing EPamyatka tool, which will make it more accessible.
Training on the evacuation of cultural heritage: bolstering the capacity of the local actors in the evacuation of cultural heritage.
Room for Heritage is a capacity-building and support programme for local cultural institutions working in frontline, de-occupied, and war-affected communities across Ukraine.
The programme is designed and implemented in partnership with Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kharkiv Literature Museum, IZOLYATSIA, Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, and Kultura Medialna.
Room for Heritage helps cultural practitioners rethink local heritage, engage with issues of memory and identity, strengthen social cohesion, and introduce sustainable cultural practices within their communities.
The programme combines in-person learning, online trainings, mentorship from partner cultural institutions, and grant support, building a network of professionals who view culture not only as the preservation of the past, but as a living resource for dialogue, connection, and Ukraine’s recovery.
Room for Heritage 2.0
The second iteration of the Room for Heritage programme received 144 applications.
Following the selection process, 32 teams from 10 regions, representing 44 institutions, took part in three learning components: the Summer School, online training, and learning sessions.
Together, they formed a growing network of cultural practitioners who view culture not only as a space of preservation, but as a living resource for solidarity, dialogue, and recovery.
Building on this shared learning, 16 teams, in partnership with members of the consortium, received sub-grants of UAH 1-1.5 million each – approximately GBP 18,000-27,000 – to implement community-based cultural heritage projects.
These initiatives focus on rethinking local identities, working with memory and war-related experiences, and strengthening social cohesion in frontline and de-occupied regions.
Under its partnership with the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation (UCF), PFRU will provide technical and material support to strengthen UCF’s institutional capacity, including improvements to its operational infrastructure.
PFRU will also deliver grant support through a competitive call aligned with one of UCF’s priority programme areas.
This partnership will expand opportunities for cultural organisations across Ukraine.
The project provided support to the Ministry of Culture to help ensure that culture was recognised as a cross-cutting theme in international partners’ approach to Ukraine’s recovery.
Key outputs were delivered through high-level events, including the Thematic Lab on “Culture and Tourism: Catalysts for Ukraine’s Recovery”.
The results of the URC2025 enabled PFRU to secure 500,000 GBP for financing culturally sensitive recovery.
The two-exhibition piece of “DAKH: vernacular hardcore” was transferred to Exhibition Pavilion “Dzherelo” and is now showcased at the K41 art centre (Kyiv) and the Dnipro Centre for Contemporary Culture (Dnipro).
The direct outcome of UCRS support became a creation of Culture for Recovery (CuRe) platform and training programme for communities that introduce cultural-sensitive lens for recovery projects.
