France’s pledge to Ukrainian artists
In order to help struggling artists in Ukraine who have been impacted by the Russian invasion, the French government has announced a $1.5 million relief fund to help workers in the arts.
According to a statement from the French Ministry of Culture, the initiative will also be available to “dissident” Russian artists fleeing the nation’s crackdown on free speech.
“The emergency reception program will finance Ukrainian artists and cultural professionals and their families for a period of three months, via the Pause program, [consisting of] residencies within the network of public establishments of the ministry and through the Cité internationale des arts [an artist-in-residence building in Paris],” the ministry’s statement said.
Two thirds of the funds will be dedicated to an emergency telephone service offered in both Russian and Ukrainian that will offer support to imperilled artists through networking with regional professionals and studio space opportunities.
The remainder of the funds will be directed to help Ukrainian students to enrol at colleges and cultural organisations in France.
Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, the French minister of culture, said the ministry “wants Ukrainian artists to be supported so they can continue their creative work in France…This additional support will be in the form of research grants and funding for artistic projects, but also for organising exhibitions.”
Russia’s unprompted attack on Ukraine began on February 24th, and has seen at least 2.6 million Ukrainians flee their war-torn home country.
According to the French interior minister, Gèrald Darmanin, the French government has pledged to accept around 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
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