Culture Helps Solidarity Ukraine Announces First 2026 Project Grantees

The first 2026 round of Culture Helps Solidarity Ukraine  Project Grants will support 16 cultural initiatives working directly with communities affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine. These projects are rooted in everyday places where recovery and connection are needed most: local cultural spaces, workshops, community groups, youth settings, refugee networks and creative gatherings.

The selected grantees are based mainly in Ukraine, alongside applicants from Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Moldova. Their projects reach veterans, internally displaced people, Ukrainian refugees, women, young people, blind authors, migrant communities and local residents rebuilding trust after loss, displacement and disruption. The methods are varied, but deeply practical: collective music-making, theatre, ceramics, writing, photography, storytelling, movement, creative laboratories, local festivals and participatory exhibitions.

What connects the selected Project Grants is their attention to lived experience. One project uses ceramics to support injured veterans in recovery. Another creates a participatory photo exhibition with blind authors from Ukraine. Others bring Ukrainian women together through theatre and writing, support young people’s mental wellbeing through storytelling, create spaces for refugees and local communities to meet, or use music and movement to rebuild confidence and social connection. These are not abstract acts of solidarity. They are small, concrete cultural practices through which people begin to feel seen, heard and less alone.

Together, the Project Grants show how culture helps solidarity take root at the community level. They support people not only as audiences, but as participants, makers, neighbours and storytellers. In doing so, they help protect the spaces where people can process their experiences, rebuild relationships, and take part in cultural life despite the ongoing impact of war.