Right on time for this year’s International Women’s Day, VATAHA has received some very special news. Four of our core volunteers who applied for a Letterenfonds grant have won it! The prestigious Dutch grant not only financially supports the execution of their artistic visions within the Randstad, but also confirms the value of Ukrainian art to Dutch society.
We are proud that Anastasiia Prokofieva and Valeriia Manzovitova have secured the Letterenfonds again since last year, and we are excited to introduce Tetiana Rumilets and Maria Petrochko as first-time winners. Ukrainian artist Hanna Hrabarska also won the grant thanks to VATAHA’s support.
The Letterenfonds is a driving force of financially supporting the literary sector in the Netherlands. It is one of six national cultural funds that invests in cultural makers, institutions and projects on behalf of Dutch society.
Anastasia Prokofieva: Memory Shelters
A Journey Through Trauma, Memory, and Resilience
VATAHA Foundation proudly presents Memory Shelters, an exhibition project by Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist Anastasia Prokofieva. In this powerful project, Anastasia explores the role of memory in adapting to trauma and finding strength in new environments. Through her own experiences as a refugee, having been displaced from Donetsk to Kharkiv in 2014 and again to The Hague in 2022, Anastasia delves into how memory becomes a shelter for the human spirit amid upheaval.
The exhibition features both new and previously created works, reflecting Anastasia’s ongoing journey of adaptation and resilience. Central to the exhibition is Fragments of Resilience, a compelling art project first showcased on Ukrainian Independence Day in 2024 in The Hague, during VATAHA’s Run for Ukraine, as part of the Letterenfonds program supporting Ukrainian creators. The exhibition will explore memory’s dual role—both as a source of pain and nostalgia, and a tool for healing and recovery.
Anastasia’s artistic research and material experiments—ranging from acrylic paintings to papier-mâché installations—bring to life the deep emotional landscape of displacement and the transformative power of memory. This exhibition is not just a personal reflection, but an invitation for all to contemplate how memory shapes resilience and guides us through the darkest times.
Hanna Hrabarska: Morning Dawn
Longing for Home Through Flowers
Hanna Hrabarska is a Ukrainian artist, photographer, and visual storyteller whose work captures pivotal moments of Ukrainian history, including the Euromaidan protests and the refugee crisis. A former journalist, Hanna has documented Ukraine’s political landscape through photography since 2011. Following the full-scale war in 2022, she fled Ukraine and found refuge in the Netherlands, where she continues to create works exploring themes of home, displacement, and memory.
Her new book, Morning Dawn, is a profoundly personal exploration of flowers as symbols of longing and connection. What began as a hobby of photographing familiar flowers around the world grew into a substantial personal collection. Together, these photographs refer to the moments of solitude, before and after the pandemic, as well as throughout the war. For Hanna, these flowers became symbols of a connection to home – both physically and metaphorically – that can be found in various corners of the world.
VATAHA is proud to support Hanna’s journey in bringing this project to life. The book, designed by Edwin van Gelder, promises to be filled with wandering and surprise. In Hanna’s words, “just like when you discover a beautiful flower and are able to observe it in the complete silence of a morning dawn.”
was shortlisted for the Prix du Livre 2024, Les Rencontres d’Arles.
Maria Petrochko: The Memory Remains
Portraits of the Perished
The list of Ukrainian friends and acquaintances who will never text Maria Petrochko back keeps on getting longer. To honor their memory, Petrochko has created illustrative digital portraits of soldiers she personally knew who have been killed on the Ukrainian front. Each portrait is transformed into a striking poster, capturing the essence of their stories and sacrifices.
“Sadly, many Ukrainian artists will no longer paint, poets will no longer write lyrical verses, musicians will no longer play melodic compositions, scouts will no longer monitor their camps, and runners will no longer participate in marathons,” Petrochko wrote in her grant proposal.
“Life goes on. But we need to work twice as hard, sing louder, and run further. It is essential to develop the theme of remembrance in the future of rebuilding Ukraine, and we need to learn together as a community to collectively grieve to be able to heal.”
Maria Petrochko is a versatile artist, who has designed everything from VATAHA’s Run for Ukraine medals to the promotional materials for last year’s Evening of Hope charity concert. “The Memory Remains” will also be exhibited at the 2025 Run for Ukraine memorial in The Hague this upcoming August.
Tetiana Rumilets: Spaces of Co-Creation for the Future
Reconstructing Ukrainian Libraries
Tetiana, an architect with 18 years of experience in Ukraine, and now also in the Netherlands, has always been passionate about libraries. Among her impressive list of accomplishments is creating a transformative project to modernize library networks in Odesa and Kherson, co-organizing the aHOUSEforHOME architecture workshops, and most recently, designing a library in the heavily-hit town of Makariv near Kyiv. This experience served as the inspiration for “Spaces of Co-Creation for the Future”, giving Tetiana insights into “the challenges faced by Ukrainian libraries and the need to expand their functionality,” she reflects.
With “Spaces of Co-Creation for the Future,” Tetiana seeks to apply her extensive expertise to aid the post-war recovery of Ukrainian cities by demonstrating the role libraries and makerspaces can play in restoring cultural infrastructure, providing psychological and social support, and promoting social cohesion.
By drawing on best practices from the Netherlands and the EU, the project will produce a guidebook and workbook to support the reconstruction of Ukrainian public libraries, assisting architects and librarians in optimizing existing spaces and designing new ones that address current community needs. “I want to contribute to the improvement and development of existing standards in Ukraine,” says Tetiana.
Valeriia Manzovitova: When life gives you lemons…
Squeezing Out the Goodness
Building on the success of her previous project “Power of Unity”, also generously supported by a Letterenfonds grant, Valeriia once again seeks to capture and share powerful stories of those affected by the war through the lens of her camera.
This time, Valeriia chose to focus on the ups and downs of life, the silver linings in times of hardship: “I would like to shift the focus from stating disappointing facts to the colossal resource that remains with us. The war has shown that the most valuable resource Ukraine possesses is human,” she says.
From a veteran who took up rock climbing after losing a leg, an arm and his sight in a drone attack, to a single mother with terminal cancer who is living a fulfilling life in the Netherlands, the individuals captured in Valeriia’s work exhibit remarkable strength in the face of obstacles. “All of them to some extent ‘made lemonade’ from the lemons that life gave them,” Valeriia sums up.
The project will be released in the form of a photobook featuring photos alongside the heroes’ stories in both Ukrainian and English, in time for the Independence Day of Ukraine on August 24.
Our heartfelt thanks go out to the Letterenfonds whose financial support and acknowledgement have humbled us and boost our resolve to promote Ukrainian arts and culture within the Netherlands.
