The war in the centre of Europe is not only causing unimaginable human suffering and destruction, it is also tearing apart carefully cultivated networks. This is why the ifa is continuing to promote dialogue between German and Eastern European artists with additional programmes.
In 2024, the Martin Roth-Initiative launched a project to empower Ukrainian artists through a hybrid residency featuring online and offline workshops, a meeting in Germany, and a publication. in 2023, the ifa mentoring programme was specifically aimed at Ukrainian women working in the arts and culture and people from the LGBTQIA+ community from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Two projects were successfully implemented in 2022: Cultural Aid Ukraine linked refugee artists and cultural workers from Ukraine with cultural institutions from Baden-Württemberg, and the mentoring programme "Mind the Gap" helped refugee women from Ukraine to gain a foothold and make connections in their countries of refuge together with mentors from the German minorities.
This whole mentoring process, it really showed me that the cultural life in general and my engagement in the cultural projects did not stop.
Sofiia Yukhymova, Arts and Cultural Manager, Mentee of the ifa-Mentoring Programme
At the same time, ifa's academic ressources are also of great importance: through the analytical lens of foreign cultural policy, it is possible to better understand how this war evolves, what dramatic effects it has and what a path to peace might look like. From ifa's networks, experts and activists on the ground provide valuable insights into the situation and its effects on the people in Ukraine.
The Martin Roth-Initiative (MRI) set up a six-month hybrid residency in 2024/2025 to support Ukrainian women artists in Ukraine by encouraging exchange and feminist artistic discourse and strengthening the resilience of Ukrainian women artists in Ukraine. The residency began in October 2024 with online sessions including workshops, discussions and input by external speakers. That was followed in March 2025 by a one-week in-person meeting of all the participants in Germany. The project was explicitly designed to be a free space for open exchange, ongoing artistic work and the development of perspectives in a safe environment.
Out of more than 95 applicants, 20 were selected by an independent body to take part in the residency. They included visual artists, writers, film directors and theatre makers from different regions of Ukraine. Working and thinking together fostered the creation of a long-term mutually supportive community of artists that continues to meet and keep the discussion alive.
During the one-week in-person residency, the group lived together in Zeitz near Leipzig. The programme included group reflections, discussions and workshops to strengthen resilience as well as contents and formats organised by the participants themselves. The Office for International Affairs of the City of Leipzig invited the participants to come to Leipzig (twinned with Kiev) and organised a day of intensive exchange and workshops with Leipzig artists and cultural practitioners.
In parallel with the residency, the participants worked on their own artistic projects, which were further developed into a joint book project in Zeitz. The contributions reflect the different experiences resulting from life in wartime, being a women and an artist, personal and collective traumas and inevitably questioned identities. The final publication "Meaning after loss" impressively documents a measure of self-empowerment gained through mutual support and has itself become a way of regaining the sovereignty of interpretation of individual and collective narratives.
The mentoring programme supported refugee women and members of the LGBTIQA+ community from Ukraine who are active in the arts and culture sector. To settle in a new country, build networks there, and continue their activities, they were brought together with mentors from the various countries of refuge. The tandems met virtually and on-site and jointly developed strategies to help the mentees develop further. This created valuable connections and new friendships.
An important idea that accompanied the programme is the principle of feminist foreign policy: studies suggest that lasting peace can only be achieved if all population groups, and women in particular, are included in the process. Thus, a feminist networking event was integrated into the joint final seminar of the 2023 mentoring programme, allowing participants to engage in intensive exchange and build additional connections.
ifa's Cultural Aid Ukraine started as a contact point for refugee cultural workers and artists from Ukraine as well as cultural organisations from Baden-Württemberg, which was organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg. The project was concluded in February 2023, a continuation is being considered. Countless artists and cultural workers have been able to expand their network with cultural institutions in Baden-Württemberg through ifa, artistic projects have been carried out successfully, and instead of waiting in limbo, refugees have been able to pursue their vocations again and process their impressions and experiences of war artistically.
As diverse as the people are who have turned to Cultural Aid Ukraine until the end of the project in 2023, so are their artistic fields of activity: Acting, illustration, architecture, sculpture and painting are just a few of them. At several networking meetings, workshops and open studio days at Kunstverein Wagenhallen in Stuttgart, acquaintances were made, plans were developed and valuable know-how was gathered for projects in Germany. A special highlight was the event 'Die geflüchtete Seele/The Refugee Soul. Ukrainian Art and Culture in the Face of War' in cooperation with the Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll. Recordings of the event are available on video.
The mentoring programme 'Mind the Gap' supported refugee women from Ukraine in finding their way in a new country. It brought them together with representatives of the German minorities in their refuge countries as mentoring tandems. Valuable friendships developed through the project. The first group finished the programme in December 2022.
An important idea that accompanied the programme is the principle of feminist foreign policy: lasting peace can only be achieved, studies suggest, if all population groups and especially women are included in the process. Therefore, the final panel discussion dealt with the topic: "Women in times of war - between the struggle for survival and feminist foreign policy".
ifa is not only involved in the work with refugees from Ukraine through the mentoring programme 'Mind the Gap'. ifa cultural managers in Eastern Europe also got involved with their host organisations directly on the ground to welcome and care for tens of thousands of people, or as ifa alumni with their own initiatives in Germany.
