Call for Action – Emergency Fund – Life Long Burning

Letter to:

The European Commission
The European Parliament
The Head office of the Creative Europe Programme
The National Governments and local authorities of Romania, Bulgaria, France, Slovenia, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Austria, Finland

United in support for Ukraine

We, as members of the Life Long Burning network – working all over Europe, with a longtime connection and Eastern European partner members, collaborating and facilitating artists’ and cultural workers’ mobility for more than 20 years – are highly concerned about the current situation in Ukraine and neighboring regions and the impact on the population in the period to come.

We want to express our solidarity as a network and our awareness that the people of Ukraine and at the border of Ukraine are in a state of humanitarian emergency. With this humanitarian emergency the impact on the long term must be taken into account. Human, material and financial mobilization must be prioritized in this direction. We already engage ourselves and our structures in a solidarity movement.

We condemn the acts of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, its citizens and residents and we request immediate action for support. We also express our solidarity and support with those in Russia who are standing against the war and the actions of Vladimir Putin.

As institutions, artists, cultural NGOs and workers active in the cultural field, we feel it is our duty to contribute to welcoming artists and their families who are forced to flee the war – as we have before and continue to do for other refugees. We welcome them in our own countries so that they can continue their activities/works. We cannot foresee the future, but we all know that the damage is done, the status of crisis will continue, and needs to be treated with care and attention.

OUR CALL

This is a burning call for urgent reaction from our states and European officials. We, the undersigned, urge national and European governments, as well as the local administrations, to set up immediate emergency funds and support measures available so that cultural and other civil society organizations can continue to actively support Ukrainian and Russians colleagues in threat. The next weeks and months will be worse than the first days of war as the number of refugees will increase. The civic reactions and solidarity of our citizens require a strong response of involvement from our governments and from the EU.

Our organizations are ready to use their infrastructures and expertise to secure a safe space and long-term action to support artists. In order to keep a balanced and fair dialogue to preserve the free expression of Ukrainian and Russian artists, workers active in the cultural field, cultural NGOs and institutions.

We believe that the strength of our partnership stays in our capacity to count on each other, in shared resources and resilience. We proved that during the covid pandemic and we will continue with an even stronger determination in times of war, as we believe in the European values and spirit.

We address you, our official representative and expect nothing less.

Signed,

4Culture Association / Romania
Brain Store Project / Bulgaria
danceWEB / ImPulsTanz / Austria
ICI-Centre chorégraphique national Montpellier Occitanie / France
Kik Melone / Croatia
MDT Stockholm / Sweden
Moving in November / Finland
Nomad Dance Academy / Slovenia
Nomad Dance Academy Network
STUK – House for Dance, Image and Sound / Belgium
TALA Dance Center / Croatia
Uferstudios GmbH / Germany
Veem House for Performance / Netherlands
Workshop Foundation / Hungary