Three years into a full-scale war, Ukraine’s cultural sector is doing something extraordinary: it is not just surviving, it is organising, connecting, and building for the future. The ASSEMBLE project is part of that effort — and for CoCA, it represents one of the most meaningful international partnerships we have entered since 2022.

Here is why this project matters to us, and why we think it matters for the broader field.

Art Does Not Stop at the Border

Since February 2022, hundreds of Ukrainian artists, curators, musicians, and cultural workers have been displaced — some to neighbouring countries, some across Europe, some to temporary safety within Ukraine itself. Many are continuing to work. But working in displacement is profoundly difficult: without networks, without infrastructure, without the continuity of community.

ASSEMBLE was designed precisely for this moment. It is a transnational fellowship that brings together displaced artists and curators, gives them time and space to develop their practice, and connects them with a European network of cultural organisations who take their work seriously.

For CoCA, joining this consortium is not just a project. It is a statement that Ukrainian culture has a place in Europe’s cultural conversation — not as a subject of solidarity or emergency aid, but as an equal creative force.

Who We Are Building This With

ASSEMBLE is a partnership across four countries. D6:EU, based in Cyprus, coordinates the project and brings deep experience in transnational cultural cooperation. Moving Artists in Spain brings expertise in residency programmes and international mobility. OTM in Belgium contributes its knowledge of European policy and cultural advocacy.

CoCA is the Ukrainian partner — and the only partner working directly in a country affected by active armed conflict. That position carries responsibility. It means we bring the direct, lived reality of Ukrainian cultural workers into the European conversation. It means the fellowships we help design will be informed by real needs, not assumptions.

The partnership is genuinely equal. Each organisation leads specific work packages and brings irreplaceable knowledge. This is not a project where one partner delivers and others observe.

What CoCA Leads: Communication and Platform

Within ASSEMBLE, CoCA leads Work Package 5: Communication and Dissemination. This means we are responsible for how the project presents itself to the world. This responsibility reflects something we believe deeply: that how you tell a story is as important as the story itself. The ASSEMBLE website will be the project’s primary public face. It will host the open call for artist-curator fellowships, document the residencies as they happen, and eventually become an archive of the project’s creative output — accessible for at least five years beyond the project’s end.

Building something that lasts, that is accessible, and that genuinely serves artists — that is a design challenge as much as a technical one. We are taking it seriously.

The Fellowship: What It Offers Displaced Artists

The ASSEMBLE fellowship is open to displaced artists and curators from any background — including those living in Europe or working within conflict-affected countries such as Ukraine. Fellows will be selected through a competitive open call and will undertake residencies with partner organisations across the consortium countries.

The fellowship is not just about time and space (though those matter enormously). It is about building connections that outlast the project: between displaced artists and European institutions, between peers across different displacement experiences, and between individual practices and the broader questions of ecology and emergency that frame ASSEMBLE’s creative programme.

The climate emergency is the thematic anchor of ASSEMBLE. This is deliberate. The intersection of environmental crisis and the experience of displacement — of being forced from home, of uncertain futures, of the fragility of what we thought was stable — is one of the defining creative and political questions of our time. Ukrainian artists have something urgent and specific to contribute to that conversation.

Why European Funding Matters Right Now

ASSEMBLE is supported by Creative Europe, the European Union’s programme for the cultural and creative sectors. For CoCA, this matters on multiple levels.

It is recognition that Ukrainian cultural organisations are legitimate partners in European cultural life — not just recipients of humanitarian support. The application process was rigorous and competitive. We were evaluated on the quality of our ideas, our track record, and our capacity to deliver. We passed that evaluation.

It also means resources that allow us to do the work properly: to pay artists fairly, to build infrastructure that will last, to document and share the outcomes in ways that create lasting value.

And it means accountability. EU-funded projects report carefully on what they do and what they achieve. That discipline is good for us. It pushes us to be specific about impact, to measure what we build, and to be honest about what is working.