Care & Resilience: Ukrainian Museums in Times of War

DutchCulture welcomes seven outstanding museum professionals from Ukraine for a one-week visit to the Netherlands. We have asked the participants - directors of various museums and heritage protection networks - to share their stories with and have their voices heard by the Dutch cultural sector during our gathering Care & Resilience: Ukrainian Museums in Times of War on Tuesday 28 February. We will listen to difficult stories of loss and destruction, but also hopeful and inspiring examples of bravery, of sticking together, of fighting for one’s values. The gathering will consist of presentations and panel discussions, a Q&A and an informal network opportunity.

24th February 2023 marks one year since the start of Russia's full-scale military attack against Ukraine. Destroying the Ukrainian cultural identity, and looting and destruction of cultural objects is an essential part of the Kremlin regime’s strategy. The museum and heritage sector of Ukraine suffered huge losses. Russian forces have damaged or destroyed around 1200 cultural objects and tens of thousands of artefacts have been stolen from museums and private collections. The Ukrainian cultural sector - museums, archives, galleries, libraries and other institutions - responded to the threat promptly, by remarkable self-organisation. They joined forces to protect the cultural heritage and started to think immediately about how to rebuild the sector after the victory.

This special evening will be centered around resilience. The speakers will tell us about their efforts to collect and save cultural heritage under dramatic and extraordinary circumstances. How did cultural institutions in Ukraine suddenly become spaces for refuge? What does resistance mean to them? How do they involve the communities, especially temporarily displaced people? How do local and international collaborations work and how can international communities help in the best way? What are the ideas for the future?

The presentations will be followed by an open discussion with the audience. The speakers appreciate your questions and dialogue and wish to motivate the audience to think about the crucial question: what can the world learn from Ukraine?

We will round up our gathering with a networking opportunity & drinks.

Moderator: Rob van der Laarse, chair of the Cultural Sciences capacity group at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and Westerbork professor in the Heritage and Memory of War and Conflict at the humanities faculties of Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.

Date: Tuesday 28 February
Time: 16:30-19:00
Location: Het Scheepvaartmuseum (kamer van Van Heemskerck), Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam
Language: English

Please note that there is a limited capacity. If you want to join, please send an email to Mauricio Tunaroza.

• Oksana Barshynova, Deputy Director of Exhibitions, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv
• Milena Chorna, Deputy Director of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War (The War Museum), The Memorial Complex, Kyiv
• Olha Honchar, Founder of the Museum Crisis Center and Director of the Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes "TERRITORY OF TERROR", Lviv
• Olena Mykhaylovska, Deputy Director of research and institutional development at the Khmelnytsky Regional Art Museum (XOXM), Khmelnytsky
• Tetyana Pylypchuk, Director of the Kharkiv Literary Museum, Kharkiv
• Ihor Poshyvailo, General Director of the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity (Maidan Museum) and the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI), Kyiv
• Yuliya Vaganova, Acting Director of the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, Kyiv

Read more about the participants and their museums.

This event is organised together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands and CER (Cultural Emergency Response).