During the first 6 months of the war, one of the top three most requested needs for support was paid-work opportunities. Ukrainians were asking for opportunities to support themselves and their families as they navigated the changes in their lives.
With that in mind, a Ukrainian-American, NYC-based woman, Tetiana Khodakivska, and her best friend, Laura Casinelli, started an open-source resource list for Ukrainian designers and artists to match them with global [remote] professional opportunities. The online list quickly transformed from a few names to 34 to 500+ as the link was rapidly shared amongst global networks and the creators watched in amazement.
Alight came across this list and was moved to uplift the initiative already in the works. We partnered with Tetiana, Laura, and other Ukrainian-Americans to build momentum and facilitate over 220 unconditional cash transfers to Ukrainian creatives living in Ukraine and create an art collection of works reflecting “Iconic Ukraine”.
As additional partners were brought onboard to build Aid2Art, two consistent themes ran through their commitment:
1) They wanted to support a humanitarian initiative that didn’t forget the unique challenges of Ukrainian creatives.
2) They saw creativity as a unique vessel to stand in solidarity with Ukrainians and other displaced people worldwide.
This is how Aid2Art was born.
