UKRAINE: ABANDONED PROPAGANDA THEATRE BECOMES PLATFORM FOR FREE CULTURE What to do with an abandoned former Stalinist summer theatre located in the central park of Dnipro? Dozens of small creative communities were scattered around Dnipro but didn't have a platform to meet. So the idea of Сцена:Stage was formed - to use the process of working in the public space as a mechanism for creating a new community. The initiators used crowdsourcing and crowdfunding tools. Architects, citizens, and future users collectively designed it, cleaned the site and participated in the construction. Although the original function remained, the values underpinning it directly opposed those of the former structure. Сцена:Stage was about promoting and giving a space for free and diverse contemporary culture, not propaganda as it was during the Soviet era. The hierarchy was replaced by horizontality. The border between the stage and the audience was blurred. Using their rights as citizens and achieving the realization through joint efforts, the community demonstrated how to integrate creative goals and develop urban space by injecting the rich and diverse culture of post-Maidan Ukraine. The project resonated far beyond Dnipro and Ukraine. In June 2018 it got the 1st Special Mention at the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018 in Barcelona as one of the best public spaces in Europe. Moreover, the stage was nominated for the prestigious European award, The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architeture, the Mies van der Rohe Award. Source: Kultura Medialna (Ukraine). WHAT IS PRIVATE AND WHAT IS PUBLIC… OR BOTH? How to deal with privately owned/privately rented spaces of public use - whether commercial shopping malls or restaurants - making use of outdoor public and frequently tourist attraction squares as well as spaces surrounding village wells in rural areas, located on private property but with a customary right for public access and use? Elaborating further on the question of private/public, Bennoune said that: “Privatization and overreliance on private sponsorship of cultural events may also affect cultural activities in public spaces, such as festivals. The attendant risks include censorship by private sponsors, when freedom of artistic expression is no longer guaranteed by public authorities and decreasing diversity.” The Special Rapporteur further noted that some groups, such as indigenous peoples, may at times: “need their own ‘common space’, which may not always be accessible to all, or accessible only under certain conditions. Such spaces must be respected, but they are also governed by human rights standards, such as the prohibition of discrimination, including against women.” 36