Visualise – international exhibition support programme

The following entities are eligible to apply:  

• legal bodies of all forms of ownership and private entrepreneurs registered in Ukraine with a confirmed prior experience of carrying out projects similar to the submitted one;  
• organisations and companies registered outside of Ukraine, their branch offices and delegations registered and certified in Ukraine with a confirmed institutional capacity and prior experience of carrying out projects similar to the submitted one.  

Applications submitted by individuals, legal entities registered both in Ukraine and abroad, related to the aggressor state – the Russian Federation, which is recognized as such in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Peculiarities of State Policy on ensuring the state sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions ”№ 2268-VIII of January 18, 2018 are considered ineligible or was occupied during martial law declared by Presidential Decree 24.02.2022 № 64/2022, namely: 

• legal entities with beneficiaries who are individuals – citizens of the aggressor state of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus or legal entities associated with the aggressor state of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus; 
• legal entities or individual enterpreneurs and / or participants of such entities to whom personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions” and decisions of the National Security and Defense Council. 

The submitted applications must comply with the following technical requirements:  

• The project is being implemented in cooperation between Ukrainian and international institution(s) or organisation(s) (museum, gallery, fair, festival, etc. in the country of the project implementation) that have the institutional capacity and experience in implementing similar projects and / or objects of intellectual property that can be used in the process of carrying out the exhibition project and organising the exhibition.  

• The project is being implemented in one of the Ukrainian Institute’s target countries as of 2023 (Poland, Germany, France, UK, USA, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Japan, Qatar, China, UAE). The Ukrainian Institute reserves the right to implement exhibition projects in other countries on a case-by-case basis. 
• The start of the project is scheduled no earlier than April 1, 2023. 
• The application is submitted in due time. 
• The application is submitted in accordance with the provided form in Ukrainian (and if necessary in English). 
• All necessary supporting documentation in accordance with the requirements below has been summitted. 

• Each section of the application is filled in without exceeding the number of characters specified in the application form.

The submitted applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance to the mission of the Ukrainian Institute. The submitted application must meet the following criteria:
– The exhibition concept corresponds to the strategy, principles and values of the Ukrainian Institute and does not violate the current legislation of Ukraine.
– The project aims to develop international cooperation, exchanges and dialogue rather than present Ukraine abroad unilaterally.
– The project encourages dialogue and discussion on the challenges of the past, present and future and/or is related to important and relevant phenomena not only of Ukraine’s culture, but also of the global agenda.

2. Quality of the exhibition and relevance of the topics it deals with in the context of Ukraine and the host country:
– The curatorial concept demonstrates in-depth and ethical elaboration of the chosen topics.
– The project represents contemporary Ukrainian culture and/or makes use of contemporary professional interpretations of cultural heritage.
– The project has a contemporary format and topic; it meets global trends, expectations of the international partners, the demand of the respective target audiences and the local context of the host country.

3. The level of institutional partner abroad.

4. Potential for establishing long-term cooperation:
– The topic of the project is revealed through the exhibition and deals with issues that both partner institutions work with on a regular basis.
– The partner in Ukraine has the sufficient agency in the project (has a direct impact on the project concept, is presented in the project architecture at the curatorial level, not only through consultants or managers) and institutional capacity to continue and scale the project in the future.
– The partner abroad makes a significant contribution to the project at the conceptual, administrative and communication levels, i.e. not only by providing location.

5. Communication potential of the project:
– The target audiences of the project are clearly defined, their needs have been researched, the goals of the project correspond to the established needs of TA. The selected communication channels correspond to the selected audiences.
– The communication plan of the project is reasonable and logically structured.
– The communication strategy of the project does not exoticise and exploit the theme of Ukraine’s victimhood, instead promoting a better understanding of Ukraine abroad and strengthening Ukraine’s agency in the world.

6. Justification of costs in the project:
– The project budget correlates with the objectives specified in the application; the estimate budget contains only the cost items that contribute to these objectives.
– The correspondence between costs and expected results is rational, confirms the effective and transparent use of funds for the project.
– Cost items of the estimate budget are as detailed as possible, the calculation of the price according to a separate column of expenses is transparent, reasonable, there are no prohibited expenses.

Detailed information on the evaluation of applications can be found in the Competition Regulations (Section 5) (in Ukrainian).

To submit an application, please send to [email protected] the following documents no later than 22 August 2022, 11:59 PM, Kyiv time 

• filled-in and signed application form (template available here) and the estimated budget (template available here); 
• copy of the statute of the applicant (extract from the statute/charter/bylaws or other documents confirming the authority of the application signatory and their right to sign contracts in case of selection) and registration documents of the applicant (scanned copies of signed documents); 

• confirmation of international partnership (obligatory: official letter from the international partner in case the applicant is a Ukrainian organisation, or a Ukrainian partner in case the applicant is a foreign organisation; preferable: a signed agreement stating the details of future cooperation; documents confirming the exhibition venue booking; curatorial and exposition plan of the exhibition; license agreements for the exclusive (non-exclusive) intellectual property rights planned to be used in the process of the project’s implementation; registration certificates of goods and services trademarks, etc.); 
• confirmation of experience in implementing similar projects in any form (in Ukrainian): links to web pages of relevant implemented projects, scanned copies of contracts for similar services, letter of recommendation from previous partners, etc.; 
• signed certificate, with a letterhead of the applicant’s legal entity, on the absence of direct and indirect contacts with the representatives of the aggressor state of the Russian Federation (template available here); 
• signed statement of copyright guarantee (template available here). 

All information must be submitted in Ukrainian or include translation into Ukrainian. All files must be sent in PDF format, the size of each file should not exceed 1 megabyte. 

Applications will be evaluated by the competition commission, including specialists from the Ukrainian Institute and independent experts. 

Olena Chervonik  

PhD candidate in art history at the University of Oxford, worked as a curator of contemporary art in a number of institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA), Izolyatsia. Platform for Cultural Initiatives (Donetsк, Ukraine), and Videonale. Festival of Video Art in Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany.) 

Tetyana Filevska 

Creative director at the Ukrainian Institute 

Oksana Kalyna 

Deputy Head of Communications at the Ukrainian Institute 

Anna Pohribna 

Manager of exhibition projects in Mystetskyi Arsenal, worked as the part of CSM / Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art team, member of the expert council of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. 

Anastasiia Yevsieieva 

Head of Visual Arts at the Ukrainian Institute

All applicants will receive a confirmation letter and, if necessary, a request for additional documents or information. Later on, however, the Ukrainian Institute team will only contact the representatives of the shortlisted projects. The selected projects will be finalised jointly with the Ukrainian Institute and included in the institution’s annual activity plan for the next year. The Ukrainian Institute reserves the right to refrain from selecting any of the submitted projects.  

The projects supported under the Visualise programme will be publicly announced in March 2022.