People and places

This initiative operates as an ongoing research platform for children and youth in the Poltava region, who regularly embark on walking and cycling expeditions throughout their native land. Participants keep field journals to document local flora, fauna, and landscapes while recording the memories of the older generation. By conversational engagement with elderly residents, the youth collect authentic micro-toponyms and family lore, which they subsequently analyze in depth during regular reflection sessions. The primary outcome of this practice is the continuous mapping of surveyed routes, historical names, and natural landmarks onto a large physical map of the village, which participants regularly present to the wider community during public gatherings and photographic exhibitions.

This literary and artistic initiative brings together creators, local historians, and residents of Zakarpattia to implement a weekly theatre and storytelling program for local youth and teenagers whose families were displaced by war. During regular workshops, participants develop skills in acting, stage movement, and vocal work while exploring the multicultural past of their region. They meet with local historians and tradition bearers, work with family archives and legends, and study social theatre methods to artistically transform these materials. The practice culminates in a large-scale, site-specific outdoor performance staged directly among the ruins of Kankiv Castle beneath Chorna Hora.

Operating as a six-month initiative, this project focuses on the detailed documentation and preservation of the historical traces of Kapytolivka, a village deeply affected by military actions in the Kharkiv region. Researchers work regularly within state archives in Kharkiv to trace family lineages and institutional documents, while simultaneously collaborating directly with residents in the village to access private collections. They identify and scan old letters, certificates, and photographs, leaving the physical originals with their owners, and record interviews regarding household items and documents destroyed or lost during the occupation. All gathered materials are systematically organized and described according to modern archival standards to build a unified, publicly accessible community digital repository.

The memorial museum in the settlement of Vysoky functions as an active community hub, hosting weekly gatherings for children, teenagers, and families from the surrounding areas and nearby Kharkiv. Participants explore local landscapes, sketch and photograph streets and gardens, and collaboratively construct a large felt map of the settlement to physically mark personal memories and meaningful sites. They record testimonies from long-time residents about everyday life across generations, create original comics and illustrations based on local history, and engage with the creative legacy of Hnat Khotkevych through interactive exhibitions, film screenings, and musical evenings, successfully weaving the historical figure into the contemporary life of the community.

Ongoing volunteer and research activities take place at the historic cemetery on Kapushanska Street in Uzhhorod, bringing together long-time city residents and internally displaced persons. Participants host regular clean-up events to clear overgrown vegetation, uncover forgotten graves, and restore the historic pathways of the necropolis. In parallel, scientific documentation is carried out as researchers photograph monuments, translate and analyze multilingual epitaphs, reconstruct the biographies of individuals buried there from various ethnic communities, and log all coordinates and descriptions into a unified digital registry. This practice helps safeguard the historical urban landscape from development pressures and preserves the city's multicultural memory.

This six-month practice is dedicated to gathering and systematizing the oral testimonies of individuals connected to the village of Kapytolivka in the Kharkiv region, which experienced occupation in 2022. Researchers record personal narratives through in-person interviews with residents in the village, as well as via online sessions with those displaced to other regions of Ukraine or abroad. Special attention is given to non-official history: memories of family traditions, holidays, everyday labor, and comparative accounts of the Second World War and recent wartime events. The collected audio and video materials are meticulously transcribed and digitized, creating a detailed historical record for future generations.

This initiative engages young people in the study and preservation of the unique dialects of Chernihiv Polissya, beginning with an intensive practical workshop on ethnographic field documentation at a traditional clay house in the village of Maksaky. Following their training, participants conduct field expeditions across five local villages to converse with elderly residents, capturing specific pronunciations, rare vocabulary, local humor, and linguistic variations between neighboring settlements. The youth also record brief conversations with their own grandparents, later reviewing and analyzing the audio data together. Based on these findings, a new edition of the local board game Menski Dialects is developed, which is subsequently tested at community gatherings by the participants, their families, and the interviewees.

This traveling women's circle in the Poltava region operates on the principles of absolute privacy and personal recommendations, gathering participants twice a month without any public announcements. The women journey through the lesser-known and abandoned corners of the Hadyach region, visiting old hamlets, rural courtyards, and natural sites to engage in long walks and botanical observation. During these meetings, they slow down, read poetry, sing traditional songs, and practice low-stakes artistic activities free from the pressure of productivity or evaluation. Each journey concludes with a ritual of therapeutic writing, where lived emotions and landscape observations are transformed into personal essays and journal entries.

This creative research program for children and teenagers in Kryvorivnia focuses on exploring identity within this Hutsul village through the lens of its distinct hamlets and family histories. Participants investigate domestic archives, collect oral testimonies from older relatives, and learn documentary and artistic photography to capture contemporary everyday life, residents, and mountain landscapes. Inspired by the multidisciplinary legacy of Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit, the youth create collages, drawings, and handmade books that blend text and image. They also analyze the writings of Stanisław Vincenz and the musical research of Hnat Khotkevych, culminating the process with a large public exhibition and community celebration to showcase their artistic findings.

The activities of the organization Power of Ideas are aimed at preserving the community and culture of Avdiivka amid the displacement and scattering of its population due to war. The core practice involves organizing three-day intensive cultural residencies in the Kosiv region of Western Ukraine for teenagers from the Avdiivka community. During the residency, the youth engage with Carpathian crafts, musicians, and traditions, while simultaneously actualizing and presenting their own heritage from the Donetsk region. The teenagers document family stories, regional recipes, and photographs to build a shared digital archive, while practicing traditional singing as a tool for connection and maintaining a living bond with their hometown.