My involvement with Leopolis for Future began in 2014. The initiative brought together members of the Polish business community, led by Grzegorz Waluszewski, and three leading Lviv universities around the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lviv: the Lviv National Academy of Arts, Lviv Polytechnic National University, and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

The project was built on a simple but promising idea: to give Lviv students practical experience in Polish companies and an international working environment, while building a community of young people who could carry Ukrainian-Polish cooperation forward.

For LNAA students, the programme offered a valuable opportunity to connect their academic education with professional work in the creative industries. Students, including those studying fashion design, could undertake placements in Polish companies, work in international teams, and see firsthand how a product develops from design to production.

It mattered to me that the experience extended beyond the workplace. Participants attended cultural events, meetings, and discussions, getting to know both their Polish surroundings and one another. An alumni community gradually formed around the programme, turning individual student visits into a lasting network of personal and professional connections.

One important occasion was a gathering of participants, alumni, and competition winners at the Potocki Palace in Lviv in 2017. As part of the event, LNAA Rector Professor Volodymyr Odrekhivskyi and I organised the “Leopolis for Future” exhibition. It presented the students’ creative work and showed the potential of the community growing around the programme.

Over time, Leopolis for Future began to extend beyond student internships. Ongoing connections among participants, alumni, universities, and partners opened up possibilities for new professional and cultural initiatives.

One such continuation was my solo exhibition “Presence” in Warsaw in 2022, made possible through connections formed during this long-standing collaboration. For me, it showed how a network that began with student internships could give rise to new forms of professional and cultural dialogue.

I consider the lasting relationships to be Leopolis for Future’s most valuable outcome. Students gain more than a few weeks of experience abroad. They enter a new professional environment, encounter a different working culture, build connections, and return with experience that can shape their future careers.

For me, helping to develop this programme was an extension of the same idea I pursued through other forms of international work at LNAA: to create an environment in which an experience abroad can grow into lasting cooperation.