a new chapter happening in two places of opposite realities, UK & Ukraine.

WE embraced each other and together created moments of pure joy & intense emotion. FOLLOW OUR PROCESS BELOW.

A snapshot of joy, connections and embracing art✨

Signed up for an exchange program to “learn new things.”

Instead: got hit with personal growth, deep convos, cultural plot twists, and a soft spot for people I just met (and now miss way too much).

These tiny polaroids? They hold huge core memories — laughter, dance circles, workshops and 2am breakthroughs about life and identity.

Not sure if it was a youth project or a personality-reset retreat, but I’m obsessed either way.

Forever grateful after a week of bonding with the most open, weird, and wonderful humans. If this was a glitch in the matrix — I’m glad I got stuck in it

Shared by Oksana Lohvinenko

Some of the working papers from the workshop in Bridport looking at

Democracy, Human Rights, Activism, Climate, Democracy, War, Fake News/Social Media

My Joy

My joy is created in a space

Safe to exist

Through the breath I share with my people

Conversations, woes, and celebrations

The space is comforted, edges softened and air made breathable.

It is our bubble

A space to just exist

Not to think of who I am

who I should be

or who they want me to be

My anxiety can clock off

I am safe

We are safe,

Safe in every aspect of the word

With the joys, shouts and exclamations

But with vulnerability

Not plaguing the air with a burden

But allowing what we bring to the bubble is ourselves,

all of ourselves

And they are welcome

Most welcome

Nothing needs to be voiced,

I see them

We see each other.

We are uneven in knowledge and understanding

But equal in noticing,

Noticing each others parts.

Noticing each others gaps.

Noticing each others creations.

For a moment, a pause, a break from the heavy.

In our bubble, we our ourselves

And we are us,

Able to just be

Shared by Sally Saint

Broken Windows

A beautiful gift from Ricky Romain artist and painter, worked with the young people from the UK and Ukraine in the Opera Circus/TCFT/Lviv EYC2025 project Art, Youth and A Shared Peace. This is his creative response to that work and the young people themselves.

“When I started this piece I just had within myself the experience of being with all the young people from Ukraine and the interaction from the short workshop and the two evenings spent with them at Bridport Town Hall. But it wasn’t a conscious decision ‘oh I am going to do a painting about that coming together. I had a sadness vulnerability and a sense of swirling around my being while I was mark making and a need to use blue and yellow, and only after a little while realising that’s the colours of the Ukraine flag, its obvious now but when I was working on it it really wasn’t, I was just wrestling with the lines and and the composition. It became in my post rational self a broken stained glass window, but it only really worked for me when I took the scissors to the square canvas and broke the boundaries of the canvas. I used a coat of primer and two coats of gesso when preparing the canvas which makes the unstretched canvas able to take cutting into it." Ricky Romain

Irina Maria Ganescu, TCFT Designer/youth leader response to the painting:

“So powerful & dynamic Ricky's painting! I perceive it as a statement meant to show the different suffering experiences of people who feel isolated and alone in their sorrow, while still searching for, or maybe even having hope that change will come and bring an end to their separation. The feeling of loneliness even while surrounded by others. As I see it, the painting is illustrating the bigger picture: they all feel/experience the same thing without realising it. And unfortunately this is a feeling that more and more people share in the world, the abrupt separation & isolation, as our ways of living have changed leaving room for an unspoken longing for human connection.” Irina Maria Ganescu

My Black Butterfly

Lyrics

Chorus

Oh fly

Oh fly

Of fly

My Black Butterfly

Fly Low

Fly High

Fly Free

Tell me what you see

Verse One

A small boat lost at sea

Fear of a family

A hopeless tragedy

Which is troubling me

Anger in the streets

Fighting to be free

Now it’s clear to see

Justice is what we need

Chorus

So fly

Oh fly

Oh fly

My Black Butterfly

Fly Low

Fly High

Fly Free

Tell me what you see

Verse Two

Struggling all alone

Staring at their phones

Darkness in their homes

Depression fills their souls

Struggling all alone

Staring at their phones

Darkness in their homes

Depression fills their souls.

Chorus

So fly

Oh fly

Oh fly

My Black Butterfly

Fly Low

Fly High

Fly Free

Tell me what you see

Instrumental

Bridge

I hear the song of hope

Bringing people joy

Changing hearts and minds like a butterfly

Lettye Metallic Lettye

Oh tir frasha tir

Pepe ruka, kipepeo

Volar mariposa volar

Song lyrics created by all

We were lucky enough to meet with Francois Matarasso very early on in our work with The Complete Freedom of Truth and when we first started working alongside the young people of Srebrenica. The conversation was about how we should evaluate the work we do through creativity and art and not just the usual quantifiable data collection.

He inspired our process through the research he did in the 90’s published in a report called "Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts.

Francois encouraged all those involved in our creative and collaborative work to contribute thoughts, poems, images, essays to the process - so we started this page The Book.

Because of Covid and Brexit our work has slowed down with TCFT. We have created smaller events and celebrations and we haven’t used this page for a while. With Art, Youth and A Shared Peace we are again encouraging contributions to this useful and empowering TCFT tradition.

This first thoughtful piece is from dancer and choreographer Zoe Cochrane. Zoe has worked with TCFT since her first residency as a participant in Srebrenica in 2015.

Zoe joined Francesco Pipparelli (TCFT since 2016), Robert Golden, photographer and film maker with Opera Circus since its founding in 1991, and myself, on a visit to Lviv in Ukraine in April 2025. We were in the city as part of an international group to support and celebrate the launch of Lviv’s European Youth Capital 2025. Zoe wrote about the visit afterwards and shares her thoughts with us here.

Tina Ellen Lee - Artistic Director

ORIGAMI DRAGON

And we are here, now.

press your feet into the floor and trust the ground to hold you.

learn to feel the presence of others and most importantly, the presence of yourself. breathe.

Outside this room we walk under the shadow of the man that punches down / that denies disabled people benefits / that denies people in poverty decent housing / that denies trans people healthcare / that embraces inertia against a backdrop of violence / that fuels hate and withholds hope from the hopeless /

But here, inside this room with warmth for walls

we can exist only with each other for company. So what next?

I realised recently that I was hiding from the truth of the world by projecting all my hopes into the future.

I sat in a room of found community and realised I need to face the fuckedupness of the world head on

plunge my fist into water

watch ripples spill between puddles and

set my eyes squarely at the horizon.

Together, we have built momentum and together, we can continue to build momentum. an activist told me once that hopelessness is manufactured and community is a doing word - none of us here have the power to change the world but we can build bridges and create connection and that is how the world works

         our revolution is good words in the right place at the right time to send wheels spinning -

So we rise:

to challenges facing us and placed in our way / carefully and carelessly / like truckfulls of paper-thick policy / scattered across the eyes of illiterates /

And still we rise, until all politicians become public servants

and still we fold together stronger each time,

until we are an origami dragon, a fortress of layered paper

and still we push

still we climb higher

and build more scaffolding for our friends,

and then scaffolding for everybody because everybody is our friend.

Still we shoot for the moon and soar through the stars, above air.

still, we rise.

So what next?

Shared by Eddie Rose

polaroids by Hayden Selby

Shared by Hayden Selby

A Gift from Jim Binning, host and volunteer in Bridport, Dorset, UK.

We were looking for something special to give as a gesture or symbol of our support and friendship to the young people of Ukraine. Jim Binning gently offered this extraordinary gift by creating this beautiful pen out of a piece of bog oak from Ukraine carbon dated to 6500 BC. Jim had obtained it from a Ukrainian diver who spent his time searching for these ancient pieces of wood. Such a profound coincidence. The piece of wood now transformed into this beautiful pen has now been returned home to Ukraine as a gesture of solidarity from us all.

Art, Youth and A Shared Peace - Experiences in Solidarity.

An article written by Hayley Anderson, who has just completed an undergraduate degree at UCL in European Social and Political Studies, specialising in History and Hungarian. She is due to begin a Masters in Languages and Cultures Across Borders at the School of Advanced Studies in September. This year has seen her participation as a Young European Ambassador and a Student Associate for the Platform for Linguistic and Epistemic Justice at UCL.

Artwork out of Democracy, Belonging and Peace

Using visual arts to express emotion, to reflect on the days work and to describe things that have no words. 

First, I started drawing. I do art therapy on my own when I feel bad, and this gives me strength and peace. Second, I notice hatred in people more than before the trip, I notice what is opposite to love and don't let it near me. Third, I have a position and choose not to sow hatred in my heart. M

Welcome and Food: Downtime:

enjoying london’s pub night life

London:- Jun 30 - July 2 2025

This is from the evaluation report to the European Youth Foundation, part of the Council of Europe, who gave us a grant which funded about two thirds of the costs of the project. 

“In London, the programme included a visit to the House of Commons which included a Ukrainian themed seminar planned and led by students from UCL. Importantly this was an opportunity for our Ukrainian guests to present the Lviv European Youth Capital 2025 and personal stories about the war. UCL also provided space for workshops on How to Influence Policy and the need for more Solidarity with Ukraine. King’s College delivered a participatory workshop on the meaning of peace, transitional justice, and trauma attuned care and an exhibition on imaging peace with photography. The project built confidence, enhanced leadership and advocacy skills, encouraged dialogue and meaningful conversations and provided safe and supportive outlets for self-expression through music and the creative arts. We facilitated cultural exchange between all participating, building solidarity, creating lasting connections and enhancing a sense of global citizenship within an intergenerational community based on the need for and belief in Democracy, Human Rights and Kindness.”

photographs by Robert Golden

Dear Lviv,

Prior to my visit I felt apprehensive about what my visit to Ukraine would be like, especially after the recent escalation in attacks. Seeing the the continued affects of the war on the news, I was unsure of what would be awaiting us. However, what became clear upon our arrival was the warmth of the people and the beauty of the place. The Austro-Hungarian architecture and cobbled streets were reminiscent of several other picturesque European cities. Amidst the enjoyment of the delicious food and wonderful company, we were reminded in ways of the presence of the war. On the first occasion, I had never felt a more drastic shift between normality and the confrontation of grief. Standing in the town square, a busy street with chatter and vibrancy is transformed in a single moment to complete silence, as the body of a fallen soldier is escorted through the streets. In this instant, I was accosted by the fact that I had never seen such a wide spread, shared loss. To see so many people simultaneously affected by grief, I was made aware of the harrowing reality that there is country wide mourning. It became clear to me that everyone I had encountered and seen on the street, has had someone taken away from them by the war. As someone who has experienced grief at a young age (although in a non-military context), seeing so many people in this way was extremely heartbreaking. It became clear to me that the war has taken so much from these people, yet they are still so willing to give and engage with each other with a shared sense of humanity. I then realised their determination to maintain as much normality as possible, is a testimony to their resilience.

In my short time in Lviv, I recognise I have never seen such a wide scale reverence and respect for the dead. As someone who felt isolated by their grief, to see how people made space for grief in their everyday lives and were still able to find moments of joy, has inspired me to re-evaluate how I remember and grieve my own Father. The people acknowledge that they carry around this grief daily, but they put the energy into honoring their loved one’s memory and in helping the cause in whatever way they can, in order to further the agenda they fought and died for. As part of the celebrations for the Lviv being awarded the title of “European youth Capital”, we attended a remembrance ceremony and concert in the Garrison church. To conclude the evening, a list of fallen Soldier’s names were projected onto the ceiling of the colossal church as the crowd sung the Ukrainian National Anthem. For what felt like an eternity we looked at these names as they passed and I was confronted with the shear volume of fallen heroes. Each person had a family, had a future, had goals and ambitions for their life before the war took that from them. I was keenly aware in this moment of my privilege in being able to experience even monotony and boredom in my life.

These daily moments of reflection and silence, reinforce the collective sense of grief and bring the people together. The extreme connectivity of the country is seen in their efforts to collaborate and fight for the freedom of Ukraine. Daily, the soldiers of Ukraine sacrifice their lives and their futures to defend themselves and the rest of Europe from the tyranny of Putin. As a European, I feel an incredible gratitude for the efforts of the Ukrainian people and feel incensed by the unfairness of the situation. As they battle to fight for democracy and freedom, it begs the question how much more can be done by Europe to show our appreciation and that we stand with them.

As anticipated, we experienced 3 air alerts during our time visiting Lviv. In the early hours of the morning on Sunday 6th April, we were roused by the blaring noise of sirens and a robotic voice repeatedly announcing “Air Alert”. Aside from being tired and panicked, I was also contemplative during my time sheltering in the hotel’s basement. What struck me most prominently, was that the crowd who gathered to shelter that night, consisted mostly of women, young children and the elderly. As the children were being hushed to sleep in the cot in the cold basement of the hotel, it especially enraged me how often this has become a feature in the lives of the Ukrainian children. It also became clear to me that the civilian targets and casualties of the bombings are the Ukrainian women, children and elderly which reinforces my opinion that Putin lacks humanity in his approach to this conflict. It also became obvious that this is a level of wide-spread psychological warfare on the masses, as the constant bombardment of missiles and drones, meant a constant state of sleep deprivation and anxiety for the people. The persistent instalment of terror caused by country-wide air alerts feels like a deliberate attempt to weaken the resolve of the Ukrainian people. They in response become more incensed in their resolve to resist.

My take- away from this experience is largely gratitude for the connections made with the people in Lviv, a resolve to be more proactive in my support for Ukraine and a determination to keep kindness in my heart and actions even in times of struggle.

Love from, Zoe Cochrane