Media kit

Media contacts

Vira Kravchuk, communication manager of Jam Factory Art Center
[email protected]

ABOUT US

Jam Factory Art Center is a contemporary art institution in Lviv. We revitalized a former spirits and jam factory into a space of dialogue, discovery, and shared experience. Since opening in 2023, we have been presenting exhibitions, theater performances, film screenings, music events, educational initiatives, and artistic community projects.

About

JAM FACTORY: CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER IN UKRAINE

On November 18, 2023, Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv officially opened its doors to the public. Housed in a former industrial complex that first operated as a distillery and later as a fruit processing and bottling plant, the center presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art while also hosting new productions in theater, performance, and music.

The idea of establishing a new cultural center in Lviv took shape in 2015, when philanthropist and historian Dr. Harald Binder decided to support the development of Jam Factory Art Center as a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to contemporary art. The initiative also sought to breathe new life into a historic industrial site and transform its surrounding neighborhood into a vibrant public space. Following several years of research, planning, and preparation, the project secured the funding needed to move forward.

Jam Factory Art Center is located in Pidzamche, just north of downtown Lviv, a district that was once one of the city’s major industrial areas. The building, distinguished by its crenellated roofline and Neo-Gothic façade, was commissioned in 1872 by the Jewish entrepreneur Josef Kronik. It operated successfully as a distillery until World War II, which, tragically, the Kronik family did not survive. After the war, the factory was used to import and distribute wines from Moldova and other parts of the Soviet Union.

In 1970, it was converted into a fruit and vegetable bottling plant, which operated until the 1990s. Beginning in 2008, the abandoned building was used periodically for cultural initiatives, including Contemporary Art Week, theater festivals, and other artistic and community-based projects.

After acquiring the property in 2015, Jam Factory Art Center commissioned Austrian architect Stefan Rindler, working in collaboration with the Ukrainian architectural firm AVR, to restore and remodel the historic complex. From the outset, the vision was to create a multidisciplinary art center that would foster critical reflection through culture. Institutions of this kind—serving both as cultural platforms and as points of connection between Ukraine and the wider world—remain relatively rare in the country.

The complex consists of six interconnected buildings arranged around an open courtyard and a pedestrian alley, creating a continuous, flexible environment that accommodates exhibitions, performances, installations, discussions, and public gatherings.

EXHIBITION THIS IS FINE))

THIS IS FINE)) opened on 13 June, 2026 at Jam Factory Art Center. The exhibition is curated by Nastia Khlestova, Anton Tkachenko, Anastasia Shergina, and Ihor Tymoshchuk

Bringing together 26 self-organized art initiatives from across Ukraine, the exhibition traces artist-run spaces that have existed from 2014 to the present day.

The exhibition focuses on the challenges these initiatives face in sustaining their work during wartime and ongoing instability. It also seeks to make their contribution more visible to policymakers, local authorities, and the broader public.THIS IS FINE)) is ultimately about communities that continue doing what they believe is important despite the fragility of their own existence. The exhibition runs until 9 August.

On 13–14 June, Jam Factory Art Center also hosted the assembly, a two-day public program of discussions exploring possible tools for protecting, supporting, and strengthening self-organized artistic initiatives.

The exhibition grew out of the Independent Curatorial Research Competition, launched by Jam Factory Art Center to support original research projects in contemporary Ukrainian art. The competition aimed to strengthen the visibility of independent research practices and support curatorial work beyond institutional frameworks.

More about the exhibition

According to the curatorial group, the exhibition is “an attempt to look at self-organization not as a heroic exception, but as the default mode of existence of the contemporary Ukrainian art scene.” The exhibition looks at structures that emerge despite instability, under conditions of scarce resources, blurred roles, and the constant need to simultaneously invent an institution and survive within it.

It is organized around two dimensions — time and space.

Time traces the emergence, transformation, and disappearance of independent art initiatives: between a deadline, a relocation, an occupation, a mobilization, an emigration, a curatorial fallout, and yet another notice of losing a venue.

Space shows how initiatives from across Ukraine continue to exist right now — in basements, warehouses, courtyards, non-functional premises, or with no permanent home at all.
Since 2014, self-organization has become not only a mode of cultural production but a mechanism for rapid response: these communities move faster than institutions, engage with sensitive subjects, and build horizontal connections where official structures prove too slow or too broken.

“Whether fueled by enemy fire or inner determination, when everything is burning, self-organized initiatives have one response: this is fine)). Behind that irony, there is no room for indifference or escapism. There is only the work of communities who, despite the fragility of their own existence, continue doing what they believe matters,” the curatorial group says.

CURATORIAL GROUP Nastia Khlestova, Anton Tkachenko, Anastasia Shergina, Ihor Tymoshchuk

SELF-ORGANIZED ARTISTIC INITIATIVES Balkonna Gallery, Vysoka Kimnata, Gangrena Gallery, Gareleya Neotodryosh, Generator Room, Dniprostir, Self-organized Initiatives for the Preservation of Monumental Art, Kvartyra 14, Kultura Medialna, Kruchi, Land Art Symposium “Borderland Space”, Mizhkimnatnyi Prostir, Nahirna 22, Variable Name, PICH, Platforma TU, Proniknennya, Autonomia Squat, Tvorche Nezhit, Totem, Hlibzavod, Bunker 2.0, Depot 12_59, Instytut avtomatyky, Noch, Open Place.

Press Release

Heads of the institution

Harald Binder, the founder

Swiss historian, Ph.D. in history and economics from the University of Bern. His research focuses on the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, Habsburg Galicia, urban history, media, and the public sphere in the transition to modernity. As an entrepreneur and cultural patron, he founded the Center for Urban History (2004), Harald Binder Cultural Enterprises (2015), and the Jam Factory Art Center (2017).

“I was encouraged to follow up on my first initiative, the urban research centre, after I had experienced what potential lies in Ukraine and its people. Just as much as science the arts constitute an important medium of profound reflection for a society, especially in times of war.”

Tetiana Fedoruk, Operations and Executive Director

Tetiana is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of the Center’s business model. She is also responsible for financial and management accounting, operational processes, and team management. Tetiana provided financial support for approximately 100 grant projects as CFO of the Center for Urban History. She holds ACCA Diploma in International Financial Reporting (2021) and Financial Accounting Managerial Decision Making (2022) from DePaul University. She is currently a student on the Key Executive MBA program at the UCU Business School.

Ilona Demchenko, Program Director

Ilona has over 15 years of experience in the culture and art field, implementing influential projects in Ukraine and Europe. She has worked at the Goethe-Institut Ukraine and House of Europe, participated in numerous art initiatives and was the producer of the Ukrainian national pavilion at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2024, Ilona co-curated the exhibition “Structures of Reciprocity” at Jam Factory Art Center.

Supervisory Board Members

Harald Binder (Chair);

Vasyl Kosiv, head of the Academy of Arts, Lviv;

Olesya Khromeychuk, director of the Ukrainian Institute, London.