Celebrating Somerset’s Creative & Cultural Practitioners - Yuliia Asanidze

‘Graduating into War’

Yuliia is starting her 11am shift, working at the bar at Westlands on the 3rd of December 2024. We meet up to talk before her work begins. 

Yuliia graduated with a Master’s in Environmental Design from KNUCA University in 2022. 

She is one of the many artists who support our front-of-house department alongside their creative ventures.

Yuliia has only been in this job for three months and has only been in the UK for about six months; she describes the period that led up to our conversation as surreal.

Yuliia is a Ukrainian artist who has just been successful in securing our Creative Commissions Grant. This grant will see her design and install a mural of Yeovil at Westlands Entertainment Venue in one of our communal spaces.

I met to tell her that her application had been successful. This commission will be her first piece of work in months.

The surreal reality of the Ukraine war is discussed, it was a situation that left her with no option but to relocate. 

This is a story you might have heard, given the last three years of news coverage. The difference is that Yuliia is now part of our community, and with each day, we are part of the story, her story. In Yuliia’s application for the Creative Commission grant, she said, “I'm exploring the county and finally am feeling at ease to pursue making art again, the local nature is inspiring.”

This felt like a good conversation starting point, we spoke about her ideas for the mural; "I’ve designed a draft of a mural to be painted on the external wall. The monochrome mural represents a silhouette of the town and its recognisable buildings such as the St John Church, Westland’s Entertainment Venue,helicopters flying in the sky, authentic residential British houses etc. It will make people come and observe the painting, warming them with the picture of their hometown, where they might point out - “Oh, I can recognise this silhouette – it’s our theatre.” So, it becomes not only a visual picture but also a piece of art where residents of Yeovil can actually interact with the painting!’ It strikes me as a testament to her nature and determination that she is designing a mural for her new hometown for a community she has just joined, whilst as an artist longing for her original hometown.

Yuliia started drawing in secondary school and in her spare time was painting everything, she told me. Working with watercolour, oil, and acrylic. She studied at an Art School for Painting and Drawing in Ukraine. She says, "When I was in school, I did not want to do design, I wanted to paint and draw graphics but when I got into the course at Uni, I completely fell in love with design and architecture.” This passion for space and design was clear in her proposal to reimagine our outside space at Westlands.  

Yuliia's second passion, alongside her creative work, is teaching English. She taught English to Ukrainians when she lived in her home country. She now continues to work teaching online. One of her students had relocated to the UK as part of the ‘Homes for Ukraine Scheme’, it was this connection that led to her eventually connecting with a guest family and settling in Somerset. 

In 2022 she was completing her Masters in Kyiv. Her final year of what had been five years. 

Kyiv was being shelled, and the final modules needed to be finished, the course could not be postponed, and there was a deadline for work to be submitted.

In an art class, Yuliia recalls the bombs and sirens going off around her as she was asked to begin her final design (a nursery School building design). She says you can’t get any inspiration in war; the situation was so surreal and left little time or space to think creatively.

Yuliia graduated into war. In 2023 she could see no working environment to start her career in Ukraine at this present time. She considered staying, even up until the day she got her visa. On the day she went to collect her visa she told me there were some of the most deadly attacks, these events confirmed her decision.  

Sadly, she had to leave her family. Yet she is hoping she can see them at some point in the new year. She has now found some peace and support in Somerset, finding some headspace to be creative has helped with this. In Somerset she has a group of Ukrainian friends she will spend Christmas with, and the new year brings hope and progression with her first mural at Westlands. Through our artist support programme, we are excited about the work Yuliia will create in Somerset and offer our support as a community in 2025. Look out for our new mural coming to Westlands in March 2025.