"Culture is a powerful weapon": Ukrainian Museums in Times of War

DutchCulture welcomed seven outstanding museum professionals from Ukraine for a one-week visit to the Netherlands. We 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 listened to difficult stories of loss and destruction, but also inspiring examples of bravery, sticking together, fighting for one’s values, renewal and hope.

We captured their visit in a very touching video:

An open discussion with the audience followed the presentations during the public event. Ihor Poshyvailo, General Director of the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, called for the recording, sharing and safeguarding of Ukrainian history. "Because of the Soviet past, this has always been very difficult," he says, "and now is the time to connect with theatres and educators to ensure that this heritage remains."

Peer Ulijn, a reporter for the NOS, asked DutchCulture's Tijana Stepanovic whether Dutch museums should develop exhibitions with objects from Ukraine to safeguard this heritage immediately. Stepanovic confirms this and emphasises the importance of international cooperation in the cultural sector: "Not only financially, but also from an educational and knowledge preservation point of view."

We are very grateful that Dutch media picked up our programme, for it is an important story to tell:

• NOS Journaal, item starts at 05.18 (28 February)
• Oekraïense musea: Rusland pleegt ‘culturele genocide’ door Oekraïens erfgoed te vernielen of te stelen, De Volkskrant (1 March)
• Op deze manier proberen Oekraïne en het Westen het cultureel erfgoed veilig te stellen dat Rusland wil vernietigen, De Volkskrant (22 March)

• 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.