SWAP Artist Residency Programme

Ask any artist what they need most to bring their creations to life and, regardless of discipline, the answer will be the same: time and support.  For three years now, the British Council in Ukraine and Liverpool Biennial have been teaming up with the most progressive artistic ventures in Ukraine and the United Kingdom to provide exactly that – time and support – to promising artists and curators from both countries.

This year, the Center for Urban History joined for the first time the Artist Residency Programme supported by the British Council. The Residency implies cooperation with the Center’s Urban Media Archive.

What does SWAP: UK/Ukraine residency programme need? Artists and curators with a genuine interest in expanding their horizons.

In the third year of the SWAP residency programme, we can offer the following:

• up to a 45-day residency in September-October 2018 in Liverpool, England, curated by the Liverpool Biennial team – for 3 Ukraine-based artists
• up to a 45-day residency in September-October 2018 in Liverpool, England, curated by the Liverpool Biennial team – for 1 Ukraine-based curator
• up to a 45-day residency in either August-September 2018 hosted by institutions in Kharkiv, Ukraine, or in September-October 2018 hosted by our partners in Kyiv, Lviv, or Odesa, Ukraine – for 6 UK-based artists

SWAP 2018 application guidelines

You want to make art? SWAP: UK/Ukraine residency programme provides: time, support, international experience and exposure. Apply today – [email protected] 

Deadline for Applications: 15 July 2018

In Ukraine, the British Council works with the YermilovCentre and the Municipal Art Gallery, from Kharkiv, the Museum of Odesa Modern Art, Kyiv’s Izolyatsia: Platform for Cultural Initiatives, and Lviv’s Jam Factory Art Center and Centre for Urban History; in Britain, Liverpool Biennial and its partner venues in the city – Bluecoat, FACT and Open Eye Gallery – provide the expertise. The objective of the programme is captured in its name – SWAP. Cultures, artistic traditions and trends, innovations in technique, perspective and philosophy cross-pollinate as creative minds travel the breadth of Europe to experience the artistic abundance of geographies both physical and psychological, territories once walled off that are now open for exploration.

Image: Paul Elliman, QUERTY_PE, 2012.  Image courtesy the artist. Liverpool Biennial 2018 artist