SWAP: UK/Ukraine Residency Programme is an annual artist and curator residency programme, organised by the British Council in Ukraine and Liverpool Biennial and by now the programme have supported 20 residencies (18 for artists, 2 for curators).
Since its launch in 2016, SWAP: UK/Ukraine Residency Programme has more than lived up to its name, providing a variety of dedicated artists with invaluable opportunities for cultural exchange, international exposure in this exceptional programme fostering personal and professional development. In 2016, Kateryna Berlova, Mitya Churikov, Oleksandr Burlaka, Alevtyna Kakhidze flew to Great Britain, having won support for full eight-week artist residencies in Liverpool, and Ukrainian curator Lizaveta German won a four-month residency with Liverpool Biennial curatorial team. That same year six UK-based artists were awarded one-month residencies in Ukraine; Vaughan Pilikian, Harriet Fleuriot, Jin He Park, Sarah Tynan, Sarah Lippett, Jamie Fitzpatrick used their time to explore the post-soviet, post-Maidan, unique Ukraine’s milieu that obtained.
SWAP: UK/Ukraine programme 2016 final exhibition and artists' profiles 2016
In 2017, four UK-based artists — Kyung Hwa Shon, Stephen Sheehan, Vicki Thornton, and Adam J B Walker were awarded 45-day residencies in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv or Kyiv. The four Ukrainians selected — Polina Karpova, Maria Kulikovska, Anton Lapov and Vova Vorotniov — spent their residencies in Liverpool, their programmes curated by the team at Liverpool Biennial.
SWAP: UK/Ukraine programme 2017 final exhibition and artists' profiles 2017
In 2018, Olena Kasperovych curator and arts manager from YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine, joins the Liverpool Biennial team as SWAP: UK/Ukraine Residency Programme curator-in-residence for the months leading up to this year’s event, entitled Beautiful world, where are you?