With a strong belief that culture can integrate different people and that art might be able to change the world for the better, Maria Yurchak has established an experimental theatrical studio for IDPs. Maria is a historian by profession, but an artist by vocation. She graduated from Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University and got PhD in World History. In 2021 with her future husband, she founded the only contemporary art gallery “Na poshti” in her native city of Ternopil. Soon it became the most popular venue for dozens of music concerts, performances, literature presentations, art exhibitions, and other cultural events. Also, she founded the first standup comedy club in her city in 2017. She claims that humor helps to survive and overcome the worst situations.

«The happiest people when grow up, continue to do what they did in childhood. – Maria says. – My sister and I always organized different activities for neighbors in the yard and we were acting plays in front of our parents. Now I am an adult but I still organize educational, entertaining and cultural events – now for large audiences with bigger social impact. And suddenly I came back to the theatre”.

In the Spring of 2022 creative cluster Na poshti transformed into a temporary shelter for internally displaced people affected by Russian military aggression and gave safe space for more than 300 people. In a few months, they went back to cultural activities as Ukrainian culture is a huge inner power of the nation.

Now Maria dedicates herself to building a stronger local community, supporting emerging Ukrainian artists. She is a manager of the international festival JazzBez in Ternopil, she brought to life Koza Music Battle competition for young indie musicians.

She has received scholarships from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s “Zavtra.UA” program and was chosen as one of the 150 most talented Ukrainians by Kyiv School of Economics Foundation’s program “Talents for Ukraine” in 2023.

“I discovered that IDPs often do not need help to fulfill their basic needs, or after basic needs they also need to be heard, to be accepted. Ternopil is not very familiar with contemporary theatre, so I used methods of it to integrate new citizens into the local community. On the one hand, they eventually can open themselves up and find new friends, on the other hand, people of Ternopil can better understand the experience their compatriots had. The mission of the program, and therefore my fellowship, is to support an increasing number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ukraine using the power of art and culture.” – Maria YURCHAK