Art in small cities. Mission: possible
Large cities, especially capitals, overflow with urban and cultural activities, while people in smaller cities struggle with a lack of opportunities for cultural leisure. But there are people who prove that cultural initiatives are not just the advantage of big cities. There are activists who run projects in small towns, learn to build communication between citizens and local authorities, and liven up the local community through culture.
One such initiative is based in the Ukrainian seaside town of Berdyansk, with a population of about 100000. Six years ago, Ksenia Kleinos opened a small anti-café called “There is a Time”, which subsequently brought together a community of like-minded people – the NGO “The Cultural Urbanists”. Their main areas of focus are urban development, educational projects and art campaigns. We spoke with two of the NGO’s team members – Ksenia Kleinos and Kyrylo Pelivanov – about the their art compaigns.
So why did you start activism in Berdyansk and how big is your team?
We had lived in large cities for about ten years, so when we moved back to our hometown, we felt a lack of cultural life and decided to create it ourselves. It was our answer to the emptiness. Fortunately, the situation is gradually improving.
Our organisation has grown and we are expanding our community of cultural urbanists, gathering people who want to develop their city but don’t know how. The core team consists of four people, and many volunteers periodically help us with projects. We try to work in a way that citizens understand, looking for formats and methods that appeal to them. Art is effective in this sense.
Could you give some examples of art projects your organisation has run?
Some of our projects are purely artistic pursuits, which help us to build a community around the organisation. Through others we address social issues, using art as a tool.
For example, in 2020 we invited the Ukrainian artist Hamlet Zinkovskyi, who created eight murals in seven days. We also opened his solo exhibition and held a number of events to draw attention to the new art objects and introduce citizens to contemporary art. Another example is the Museum on the Beach – together with a local artist, we painted the wall of the sea port, which borders the popular beach, with reproductions of paintings by Ukrainian artists. The local art museum then led a special tour for schoolchildren and visitors. A public space is now beginning to take shape around this wall. The paint for “The Museum on the Beach” was funded by crowdfunding (about €1,300).
We also founded the animation festival “RavlykFest”, which has been promoting animation as a tool for social change – and for artivism in particular – for five years. As part of this festival, we presented a digital exhibition about societal prejudice towards people with disabilities, and taught activists to create their own cartoons to promote socially important issues. Through another initiative, we worked with students from the local university to create art projects aimed at overcoming gender stereotypes. That exhibition later travelled throughout Ukraine. Earlier, we held forum theatres on conflict resolution and non-violent communication for internally displaced persons, as well as on gender-based violence.
How do city residents respond to such new ideas?
Historically, our city developed rapidly and turned out to be very multicultural. But today it is common for locals to call Berdyansk “a dead-end city”. The city is the terminal point of many transport routes – people do not pass through on their way elsewhere, as they might with Dnipro or Kyiv. If someone visits Berdyansk, it is on purpose. That is, in general, characteristic of many places that are not major cities.
A significant number of young people leave for other cities in search of education or work, and most of them never return. Many go to Kharkiv for its universities, which keeps that city’s population very young. Berdyansk, by contrast, is much older. The more progressive young people, who are open to change, most often leave. This is one of the reasons why Berdyansk is quite conservative – a problem relevant to many small towns without an active cultural life. As a result, many innovative topics or projects, such as gender equality, tend to meet resistance. The very word “gender” triggers people – they fear it and say “we don’t need this, it should be banned.” In small cities, progressive initiatives need to be introduced gradually, step by step, without anything too provocative at the start.
Is it difficult to run such projects in a small city?
The local authorities supported us on paper, but in practice did not even mention our organisation’s name in the local media they control when covering our projects. Today the situation has improved a little (we think because political ambitions faded after the local elections) – our relationship can now be described as “don’t cause any difficulties”.
It is worth noting that in small cities a good reputation spreads faster. But equally, mistakes can have a stronger negative impact. Local businesses know our team members well and are ready to help without conditions. In our case, the city’s size did not affect our ability to attract sponsorship.
Among the challenges, we would mention the slow uptake of modern tools in daily city life, both technical and organisational – people are not very familiar with things like crowdfunding.
Here, it is more difficult to attract participants, even to free events (interestingly, middle-aged people tend to be more active than young ones). We have had to spend more time and resources – both human and financial – on promotion to reach a larger audience. Personal communication is the most effective approach in our city.
There is also a lack of services for organising large events – catering, portable toilets, electrical services and so on. Finding a venue for seminars or training sessions can be difficult too – there are only a few such spaces and they are not always available or accessible.
We should also mention that small cities have fewer experts than large ones, and inviting them to a lecture or workshop means additional costs for travel and accommodation.
One real advantage is that audiences here are not as jaded as in large cities – it is easier to surprise people. Each event in Berdyansk feels unique and significant. This means activists can take the experience of other cities and communities, adapt it to local reality, and still achieve a real impact.
What are your plans for the future?
We will continue our urban movement and bring more art to Berdyansk. Among our next projects, we want to create a sound design for the local art museum’s paintings to engage people with visual impairments. We are also focused on nurturing new members of our community who will initiate projects themselves. We look forward to new young teams emerging in the city – ones that might even become our competitors one day.
What advice would you give to young people in small cities who want to start practising artivism?
We would suggest starting not from the form, but from the goals and the substance. If you need a gallery, you can negotiate with a local café to host an exhibition. If you need a youth space, hold your first meeting in a college lecture hall and work on building a community willing to create and sustain such a space. A room labelled “a youth space” does not make a youth space. These constraints can actually push you to be more creative.
And if you want something – do it! At the very beginning, only a few people believed in our anti-café, but it is better to focus on positive feedback than negative. Everyone has doubts and fears of not being understood. But by acting, you will change your environment and find the people who are ready to create something with you.
This article was initially published by Cooperation and Development Network. You can read the full publication at https://www.cdnee.org/publications