The Background in the Lives of Towns in Ukraine

With industrialization and the rapid development of cities, a distance emerged between villages, towns, and cities. It was often deepened by political narratives or artistic works: heroic poems, cartographic manuscripts, travelogues, newspaper articles, drawings and landscapes, and later radio and television programs or, finally, podcasts and video essays. On the one hand, they typically exoticize and romanticize images of small towns, and on the other hand, they portray them as the embodiment of political, economic, and cultural inertia. In contrast, the lights of larger settlements — cities — fascinate and attract with "progress."

But what lies behind the facades of towns and cities? What do we notice at the forefront, and what continues to play its role in the background, not always visible, but adding depth, texture, and additional meanings role in the background? Neighborliness and communities divided into "friend and foe," multiculturalism and conservatism, political influences and complex family histories, images and relationships, shared grief and reasons for joy?

We invite journalists, writers, curators, artists, researchers, and anyone who is interested in the topic of cultural heritage to the residency "The Background in the Lives of Towns in Ukraine" to work together on how we see and compose narratives about small towns, their heritage, and history, whom we give the main role to and what we give the background details to. This residency will be an opportunity for participants to work on individual ideas and projects about towns and small cities.

The residency will be held in three stages:

• June 18-20, 2026, in Lviv
• during July online
• August 7-8, 2026, in Lviv

The residency program will consist of lectures, discussions, excursions, and film screenings, opportunities for individual work, and a reading group in July. The participants of the residency will be able to work with the materials of the Urban Media Archive and books from the library of the Center for Urban History.

At the end of the residency, we hope to have a dialogue and a deeper conversation about the towns and their heritage in public space, in particular in the media, art, and research projects of the participants. 

To participate, please register here by March 25.

The organizers will announce the results by April 8. Participation is free, and participants will be reimbursed for travel and accommodation expenses. The number of seats is limited.

The idea of the residence is part of the project "REHERIT 2.0: Common Responsibility for Shared Heritage", which strengthens the vision of the multicultural heritage of Ukrainian cities and towns as a common heritage, revitalizes cultural development, promotes critical thinking and overcoming discrimination, and stimulates local socio-economic potential. "REHERIT 2.0 is implemented by the teams of the Center for Urban History and the Regional Development Center of the PPV Economic Development Agency with the financial support of the European Union.

This publication was created with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of the partners of the REHERIT 2.0 project and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.