Viktoriia Churkina spent more than twenty-five years inside the architecture of higher education — as a scholar, a teacher of teachers, a builder of curricula. After relocating to Ireland, she began asking a different question: not how people learn, but how art changes what a displaced mind can feel.
Viktoriia Churkina is a singer-songwriter, researcher, educator, and trainer, and a member of IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organisation. She holds a PhD in the theory and history of culture and has spent over twenty-five years working in higher education, teacher training, and arts education — lecturing at universities, designing curricula for teachers in the arts, and authoring more than 120 academic publications and eight teaching manuals along the way.
Her professional life has moved across educational methodology, cultural studies, music education, and the teaching of Ukrainian language and culture, alongside digital learning and teacher development — including extensive experience running in-person and online training through Zoom, Google Meet, and YouTube.
Since moving to Ireland, Viktoriia has kept building — earning QQI qualifications in adult education, management, accounting, digital competencies, and international cuisine, alongside specialised courses in artificial intelligence, digital marketing, and child protection. She remains an active volunteer, supporting Ukrainian educators and youth initiatives, and as a member of IMRO she brings her academic background directly into her creative practice.
"Art isn't only a means of cultural self-expression — it's a tool for emotional recovery, resilience, and dialogue between cultures."
Her current project, Vikalira | Ealaín & Neuroaesthetic Lab, is an interdisciplinary creative and research space bringing together contemporary art, digital media, education, and neuroaesthetics. The lab sits at the intersection of science and creativity, examining how visual imagery, music, rhythm, colour, and artistic narrative shape memory, emotion, attention, and perception — with particular focus on the Ukrainian-Irish cultural context, and on themes of cultural memory, identity, forced migration, and recovery through art.
One of the lab's central strands is the creation of original video essays, digital art, and music-visual projects published on YouTube and other platforms. Viktoriia is also developing a podcast series on neuroaesthetics, art, culture, and creative health, intended for Spotify and YouTube, aimed at making current research accessible to a general audience and showing the practical value of art for psychological wellbeing.
Alongside this, she develops educational programmes and teaching materials for educators, cultural workers, NGOs, and youth centres — combining artistic practice with themes of human rights, social justice, inclusion, and intercultural communication. The lab also runs creative workshops, lectures, and training sessions for schools, community organisations, and cultural institutions, grounded in art pedagogy, neuroaesthetics, and creative facilitation, and aimed at building emotional resilience, critical thinking, and intercultural dialogue.
Music holds a particular place in her work. As an IMRO member, Viktoriia composes original music that she integrates into her video work and digital art projects, deepening their emotional and therapeutic reach. Today, Vikalira | Ealaín & Neuroaesthetic Lab stands as a space where science, art, and education meet — and Viktoriia is looking to grow international partnerships with museums, universities, NGOs, and cultural centres across Ireland and Ukraine, building projects that support cultural integration, creative development, and wellbeing.