Slovo Art Residency in Kharkiv
space for creativity, dialog and cultural exchange for artists from Ukraine and abroad
Slovo Art Residency in Kharkiv is a space where artists from Ukraine and other countries can work and discover Kharkiv.
Kharkiv Literary Residency was established back in 2018 by PEN Ukraine and Kharkiv Oblast State Administration, with the support of the Literary Museum. Our guest writers discovered the city and worked at the museum while living in a hotel or in rented apartments.
In 2020, the Literary Museum residency was granted access to two very special properties bought by the Kharkiv-based Naboka family: the apartment of the writer Petro Lisovy in Slovo House and Yurii (George) Shevelov’s apartment in the Salamander House.
Now the Residency has become a real place on the map of Kharkiv, and it is bustling with vibrant life. Here the artists not just work on their new projects but also organize apartment parties for everybody who wants to visit. They have hosted lectures, book launches, literary readings, concerts and informal conversations, and at moments like these memorial spaces become regular living spaces for the creatives. We can almost feel writers of the Slovo House and Yurii Shevelov join us at these events.
These writers become ambassadors of Kharkiv by:
- establishing connections between various projects and communities
- highlighting their stay at the residency across their social networks;
- stating that their works were “created during the residency in Kharkiv” in their publications;
- publishing their essays about working in Kharkiv in national media;
- helping to combat negative stereotypes about Kharkiv.
Our residents through the years:
2018: Liuba Paraskeviia Strynadiuk.
2019: Liubko Deresh, Iaroslava Strikha, Michael Zeller, Kateryna Kalytko.
2020: Maksym Bespalov, Tania Radionova, Yurii Matevoshchuk, Bandy Sholtes.
2021: Lyuba Yakymchuk, Yaryna Tsymbal, Yuriy Gurzhy, Yurii Andrukhovych, Sashko Dermanskyi, Jonathan Ben-Shaul, Ivan Andrusiak, Dara Kornii, Virlana Tkacz, Yevhenii Stasinevych.
2022: Oksana Zabuzhko, Daria Badior. In 2022, the residency was supposed to welcome artists and scholars from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the US, the UK and Egypt, but it hosted war reporters and researchers of Russia’s crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage instead.
In 2023, the Residency reopened its doors to artists, with Victoria Amelina becoming its first resident. In the summer, the Residency welcomed the first artist from abroad: the Polish poet Jacek Podsiadło.
2024 – Ihor Maliievskyi, Pavlo Korobchuk, Ondřej Kundra, Liuba Ilnytska, Yevhenii Stasinevych, Iva Pekárková, Alena Zemančíková, Ivan Andrusiak, Yaryna Tsymbal, Borys Filonenko, Mariian Pyrozhok, Khrystyna Semeryn, Tetiana Pylypets, Petra Hůlová, Adéla Knapová, Maryna Kumeda, Sofia Cheliak.
The Residency’s team: Kharkiv Literary Museum, the publisher Oleksandr Savchuk, the writer Serhiy Zhadan and the family of the residency’s unwavering patron Andriy Naboka.
Curator of the 2024 Residency: Vladyslava Dermanska.
We are grateful for the support of PEN-Ukraine, Větrné mlýny Publishing House (Brno, Czech Republic) and the German Organization for the Management of Neighbouring Rights (GVL).
To become a Resident, please fill out the application form.
Residency at Social Networks:
The Residency’s social network accounts are maintained by our residents as well as writers of the 1920s-30s, the former residents of the Slovo House (materials prepared by Maryna Kutsenko).
Apartment No. 40 of journalist and writer Petro Lisovy in the Slovo Building at 9 Kultury Street has been operating as an art residence since 2018. It was transferred to the Kharkiv Literary Museum for long-term use by Kharkiv philanthropist Andriy Naboka.
In early 2024, the team of architect Viktor Dvornikov renovated the apartment, preserving the oldest elements of the building that they were able to reach. You can find exposed fragments of walls with authentic bricks and old wallpaper throughout the apartment. Some parts of the ceiling are also exposed.
In the future, we plan to create several exhibitions in the space that will tell about the history of Slovo, its authentic residents and contemporary residents.
The memorial apartment of linguist Yuriy Shevelev in the Profitable Building of the Salamandra Insurance Company was also transferred to the Kharkiv Litmuseum for long-term use by the philanthropist Andriy Naboka.
We have been accepting residents in this space since 2021.
The apartment has a resident and non-resident part, as well as a space for holding events (apartments). The resident part of the apartment has been renovated with maximum preservation of local authenticity.
