About
Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture / DCCC is a Ukrainian cultural institution creating projects which focus on contemporary art, media, urban studies and informal education since 2019. This is a platform for international collaborations, research and interactions with local communities. Leveraging arts and culture, we speak about ideas and issues the society is concerned about, attempting to comprehend our own historical heritage and make the Ukrainian voices resonate within the global context.
An independent and young institution, DCCC emerged from a grassroots initiative. We strive to create a relevant cultural product, to enhance interactions between communities in the city of Dnipro, and to promote the forging of relations between Ukraine and other countries through cultural projects. Our team is still searching out approaches to work with local contexts, experimenting with formats and trying to understand how a cultural institution should function in Dnipro in order to make a positive impact on the city and its residents. Our intention for the future is to build a sustainable institution that will be visible on the cultural map of Ukraine and beyond, one that will contribute to the flourishing and expansion of Ukrainian culture.
DCCC currently has several residents under its roof: Kultura Medialna NGO, Artsvit Gallery and the French Center Alliance Française. When the full-scale war began, the institution also housed volunteer and humanitarian initiatives, and DCCC operated as a temporary social hub hosting charitable cultural and educational events for Dnipro residents and those forced to relocate to the city.
Our projects are supported by grants offered by domestic, European and US organizations and foundations, including the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, the British Council, German Foreign Office Relief Fund, Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, USAID, NED, and Goethe-Institut. DCCC residents operate their own financing models which often combine crowdfunding campaigns and funds outsourced from local budgets or grants.
DCCC is situated in a building formerly occupied by zemstvo, a local government institution. Repairs and renovations are currently in progress there. When complete, there will be several public spaces: gallery, Blue Hall, lecture hall, library, exhibitions space, courtyard, terrace, café and in-house shop.
Our mission is to position Dnipro on the maps of Europe as an involved participant of cultural processes, to support and research the contemporary urban culture.
Our values: relevancy, socially critical art, quality content, interdisciplinarity, experimentation, innovation, democracy, openness, diversity, inclusivity, freedom.
History
The idea of a cultural center which was meant to become a venue for the representation of contemporary culture and interactions between residents came up in 2015. Following the Revolution of Dignity, the DCCC’s co-founders — Kultura Medialna NGO — created the Construction, a festival of audiovisual art and new media, looking to initiate change in Dnipro’s cultural environment. The project touched upon the physical and would-be image of Dnipro, proposing a new perception of its peculiarities and drawing attention to the things shared: space, responsibility, future. The Construction is held annually and now too at various urban locations, including the DCCC.
The first festivals made it clear that Dnipro lacked a common space where up-to-date global cultural and artistic trends would be presented and which would at the same time engage the local context. The search for a physical place to accommodate the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture began, and pending that, the institution existed only virtually, as a Facebook page. The negotiations with the city, the region and private owners of various locations in Dnipro lasted two years. Over this time 5 concepts and projects of cultural centers at different locations were developed, none to come to fruition for various reasons, one of them being the non-commercial nature of the project.
Kultura Medialna took up an experiment in 2017: teaming up with architects and residents of Dnipro, the fourth Construction Festival created a temporary public space, Сцена:Stage. Located in a neglected area of Shevchenko Park, on location of the old amphitheater, this was a temporary wooden structure accommodating movie screenings and lectures, workshops and exhibitions, concerts and other events. Сцена:Stage emerged thanks to the citizens’ efforts: everyone willing got involved in building the structure, and funds were raised through crowdfunding. The project became a cultural center prototype — it was built exactly to get an idea of the space the city was needing. In a year Сцена:Stage was stripped down and the DCCC concept design began. That was a joint effort of Kultura Medialna, Artsvit Gallery, Alliance Française and Czech Centre in Kyiv.
The Сцена:Stage project resonated far beyond Dnipro. In June 2018 it got the 1st Special Mention at the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018 in Barcelona as one of the best public spaces in Europe. Besides, it was nominated for the prestigious European award — The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture — Mies van der Rohe Award.
In 2018, after the success with the Сцена:Stage project, arrangements for creating a cultural center on the premises of the former zemstvo building were made with the building’s owners, the Jewish Education Center. Located on Krutohirnyi Uzviz, this house consists of three parts: the Old, New and Secretary ones. Used as a private residence in the second half of the 19th century, it was then purchased to accommodate zemstvo, the local government. After 1917 the building was used as military headquarters. The building stood abolished from the late 1990s; owners initiated repairs and restoration works at their expense in 2019. A team of architects, historians and cultural experts formulated a holistic approach to pinpoint different eras of the building but at the same time to adapt it to modern needs. When complete, there will be several public spaces at the DCCC: gallery, Blue Hall, lecture hall, library, exhibitions space, courtyard, terrace, café and in-house shop.
Starting 2019, Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture has not been operating on a full scale due to the building’s repairs. Before the full-scale war, it housed exhibitions, festivals, educational programs, art residencies, artistic and urban studies projects.
Having suspended its activities on February 24, 2022, DCCC used its premises to set up a social hub in March, offering services to locals and forcibly displaced persons. This was the place of movie screenings arranged together with Dovzhenko Center, benefit music events, Ukrainian speaking club meetings, community kitchen gatherings, discussions with Ukrainian experts, art classes for children, workshops and recordings of POMIZH, the culture in a state of war podcasts. Talking about the year of 2023, our team has planned a new program meant to promote the revival of cultural practices in Dnipro and surrounding regions.
Team
Andrii Palash
DCCC Director, Head of Kultura Medialna, DCCC Curatorial Board
Kateryna Rusetska
Program Curator of Kultura Medialna, DCCC Curatorial Board
Iryna Polikarchuk
Director and Program Curator of Artsvit Gallery, DCCC Curatorial Board
Viktoriia Nikitina
Curator of Artsvit Gallery Collection
Mariia Yarchuk
Project Manager at Kultura Medialna
Alina Stamenova
Communications Manager at the DCCC and Kultura Medialna
Dinara Khalilova
PR-Manager at Kultura Medialna
Oleksandra Shovkun
Project Manager at Artsvit Gallery
Anna Maslova
Administrator
Olena Prykhodko
Financial Manager
Olia Vasylets
Media maker
Bohdan Somov
Technical Manager
Stanislav Pyvonos
Communications Manager at Artsvit Gallery
Mila Kostianа
Designer
Olena Misiura
Content Creator
Residents
Resident organizations working in the DCCC.
Alliance française
Operating in Dnipro since 1991, Alliance Française is a cultural and educational non-profitable public organization supported by the Embassy of France. The mission of Alliance Française is to promote the French language and culture worldwide and encourage the dialogue of cultures.
Kultura Medialna
A non-governmental organization operating in Dnipro since 2013. Kultura Medialna creates and manages projects dedicated to art, culture, urban studies, informal education, community development and media. The organization’s projects include Construction, the audiovisual art festival, experimental cultural space Сцена: Stage, and the design of the educational program “Management of Socio-Cultural Activities” for Dnipro Art College.
Artsvit Gallery
Founded in Dnipro in 2013, Artsvit Gallery is an art institution offering a cultural platform for interdisciplinary projects, discussions and representation of contemporary Ukrainian art. Working with prominent artists, curators and art historians, the Gallery supports trending art movements by organizing exhibition projects, residencies and hands-on training, lectures, educational programs for children and adults.
Projects
In this section you can learn about our current and completed projects.
The residency for young artists
The project is for artists who are just beginning their creative journey
Poetry and Performance. The Eastern European Perspective
International Exhibition Dedicated to Poetry and Performance of Eastern Europe
Partners
How to find us
Address: 21a Krutohirnyi Uzviz (Descent).
You can get to the DCCC from Krutohirnyi Uzviz street or Uspenska Square. Due to repair work, only the entrance from Uspenska Square is open now.