Katowice City of Gardens: Cultural hub helping Ukrainian refugees & artists

The City of Gardens in Katowice, south of Poland, is an interdisciplinary cultural hub covering all the art forms, from music to visual arts, from new media to dance, in their monumental headquarters.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the City of Gardens’ building (concert halls, workshop venues, art galleries and office spaces) has been a reception point for refugees. Apart from programming events, productions, and educational and artistic activities, the institution is now also dedicated to helping Ukrainian families, including artists in residence who have fled the war.

The City of Gardens offers Ukrainian artists in Katowice access to rehearsal spaces, housing, a large network of contacts and the professional support of the City of Gardens team members. Martyna van Nieuwland and Mateusz Zegan are coordinating special activities to integrate Ukrainian creatives into the Katowice cultural scene. These events involve the artists in several of the regular projects organised by the institution, such as Katowice JazzArt Festival, World Music Festival Gardens of Sounds, Katowice City Days and music education activities.

We have talked to Martyna —head of programming of the Institution of Culture in the Katowice City of Gardens— regarding their activities and artists in residence.

Katowice JazzArt Festival

‘As suggested by the Lviv curator Bogdana Brylynska, we invited Ukrainian poet Yuliya Musakovska for the 11th edition of Katowice JazzArt Festival,’ relates Martyna. ‘This was preceded by the performance of a premiering duo: Polish vocalist Natalia Kordiak with Ukrainian pianist and composer Kataryna Ziabliuk in the new program dedicated to 19th-century female poet Lesia Ukrainka.’

‘This interdisciplinary opening of the Katowice JazzArt Festival took place in Silesian Theatre on 26th April 2022. However, that was not the end of the collaboration with Lviv and Musakovksa, who inspired further activity. We could continue working with her further thanks to the Solidarity grant. The mural based on her poem will be created between 15th August and 10th September 2022 by the Ukrainian visual artist Bogdana Davydiuk from Rivne.’

Collaborations in Katowice

Martyna also shared with us the story of saxophonist Kirilo Revkov, who found refuge in Katowice between March and August this year: ‘Kirilo comes from Donetsk, as does his wife, classical flautist Anna Revkova. Eight years ago, they moved to Dnipro due to the Russian aggression in Donetsk. At the beginning of March, the whole family found a safe space in the artists’ residence flat in Katowice City of Gardens.’

Kirilo and Anna have performed together three times so far. Their online concert in Scena za Szybą club on the 23rd of March can be seen here, and their concert along with the Swiss harpist Julie Campiche and her quartet took place on the 19th of April in NOSPR can be watched online here.

Kirilo also joined residents from Italy and Poland who worked in Katowice in early March. Their week-long residence culminated with a concert, during which Katowice City of Gardens helped to collect money to support Ukrainian refugees.

Artists in residence

Martyna has many other stories to share. ‘At the beginning of March,’ she tells us, ‘we invited the acquainted composer and pianist Anna Khazova from Zaporizhya, who became our second resident in Katowice. Khazova studied in Katowice years ago, so she still has friends and colleagues in town who reacted quickly to support her. The Solidarity grant from the European Cultural Foundation helped her to focus on composition and collaboration with local artists from Katowice and Ukrainian residents. “Od serca Ukrainie”, organised on May 23rd with several Ukrainian musicians, was our first event supported by the Solidarity grant.’

Shortly after, the team of artists in residence was joined by two choreographers and dancers: Diana Durnieva and Yeva Voloshyna from Kyiv, who worked along with Khazova. Their last project premiered on July 15th.

…and more

Other events include: a concert by the duo Igor Zakus and Use Bekirov in collaboration with the Polish band Czeremszyna that took place on June 10th; PRIME Orchestra from Kharkiv’s performance on May 1st in Katowice City of Gardens concert hall; Laura Marti and Nataha Lebedeva’s duo performance on August 24th during Brno Live Festival in Jakubak; and the display of a crochet Ukrainian flag by the New York-based artist Agata Olek and young Ukrainian designer Artem Verakuta in Norrkoping on August 25th.

For the past few years, the hub has been working with two major institutions from Ukraine that are currently providing them with information about artists in need: Ukrainian Institute and Lviv Unesco City of Literature.

Past notable efforts of Katowice City of Gardens include their involvement in some of Katowice’s most important cultural events, such as OFF Festival, Tauron Nowa Muzyka and Rawa Blues Festival. Find out more about their past and present activities here.

Granted: €10,000