Up to UAH 1 million: UCF and MHP-Community launch a grant competition for cultural projects for communities

The MHP-Community Charitable Foundation and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation have announced the launch of a new grant competition "Culture in the Focus of Communities" with funding from UAH 500 thousand to UAH 1 million for cultural projects.

The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation is launching its eighth grant season with a number of initiatives for the development of culture and creative industries. Among the opportunities for communities to be implemented in 2025 is the "Culture in the Focus of Communities" competition, which started on January 9. The goal of the competition- is to provide access to cultural initiatives for communities outside of large cities and regional centers. The project is aimed at preserving cultural heritage, popularizing regional values, developing Ukrainian identity, and forming common values that are relevant in times of war.

According to Anastasia Obraztsova, UCF's executive director, for 7 years in a row, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation has been supporting projects that promote cultural revival and activate local initiatives. 

"At the end of 2024, together with the MHP-Community Foundation, we signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, which officially confirmed our readiness to combine ideas, resources and efforts to develop culture in regions where business, government and community work in unison, creating a strong, developed and cohesive cultural ecosystem. The main goal of our cooperation is to make culture accessible, modern and close to community residents through the implementation of the joint LOT "Culture in the Focus of Communities" of the UCF grant program "Culture. Regions", - said Anastasia Obraztsova.

The contest covers all regions of the country. The total budget of the competition is UAH 10 million, half of which is provided by the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation.

"Cultural revival is something that cannot be postponed until tomorrow. It is our powerful response to today's challenges, including Russian aggression. That is why the MHP-Community Charitable Foundation, together with our strategic partner MHP, supports what preserves our identity: local museums, book publishing, Ukrainian cinema and art. We have been working in communities for over 10 years and understand their needs well. Culture is not just about art, it is about people, their stories, traditions and future. To unleash this potential, to make culture accessible and close to every resident, we created this competition. This is our contribution to making communities develop and become stronger thanks to their unique cultural heritage," - said Oleksandr Pakholyuk, Director of the MHP-Community Charitable Foundation. 

Project participants can apply for grants from UAH 500 thousand to UAH 1 million. A prerequisite is co-financing, which must be at least 10% of the project budget.

The competition is open to local governments, legal entities of all forms of ownership, and individual entrepreneurs operating in settlements other than regional centers and the city of Kyiv. The participant must have been operating for at least 1 year prior to the start of the competition and have experience in implementing similar projects in the field of culture.

The competition will support projects in the following areas: visual, audiovisual, as well as performing and stage arts, cultural heritage, literature, cultural and creative industries.

Support is a priority for the project:

• Innovative cultural and artistic initiatives aimed at preserving, developing and popularizing the cultural heritage of the regions for Ukrainian and international audiences;
• technological solutions in culture: digitization of printed materials, archives, museum objects, architectural monuments; use of VR, AR, 3D modeling and other technologies to create new exhibitions and update existing ones;
• new local initiatives, including intangible heritage;
• creating innovative and accessible spaces for creativity and leisure;
• partnerships between cultural and tourism organizations, local governments, and international institutions.

Applications will be accepted until February 24, 2025 with mandatory implementation in the current year. Detailed information on the conditions and deadlines for submitting applications can be found on the official website of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. 

MHP-Community Foundation is a Ukrainian charitable foundation that was launched in 2015 to help communities solve their social, economic and environmental problems. The foundation operates in 13 regions of Ukraine and in more than 700 settlements. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it has been systematically supporting people in the war zone, Ukrainian defenders, communities, charitable institutions that take care of orphans and the elderly, as well as people who have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the war. One of the important areas of the Foundation's work is to support cultural initiatives (publishing books, supporting film production, helping local museums, etc.) Since the beginning of the full-scale war, MHP-Hromada has allocated more than UAH 80 million for this purpose.

The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation is a state investor in the development of culture and creative industries in Ukraine. The institution was founded in 2017 on the basis of the Law of Ukraine "On the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation". It supports individual, national, and international cultural and artistic projects on a competitive basis in seven sectors: audial arts, visual arts, audiovisual arts, cultural heritage, literary affairs, performing and stage arts, and cultural and creative industries. Over the seven years of its operation, the Foundation has funded 2717 projects. The amount of money invested in them is over UAH 1.6 billion, and the number of people reached by the Foundation is 53 million.