The Warsaw Rising Museum in Poland recently set up the Committee for Aid to Museums of Ukraine, which now includes representatives from several dozen Polish museums. The group is keen to gain more assistance internationally, including from the UK.
The director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, Jan Oldakowski, said: “We are convinced that it should be a global initiative. The entire international community should make every effort to support Ukrainian museologists in their heroic fight to preserve the cultural heritage.”
The museum has the support of the British Council and the British Embassy in Poland, but currently no British museums are involved with the committee.
Museums helping museums
The Network of European Museums Organisation (NEMO) is bringing together a list of all the work that European museums are doing to help heritage and heritage workers in Ukraine currently. For the full, up-to-date list and how to get in touch with the organisations, click here.
Financial support and materials for museums are, of course, still very important for Ukraine’s cultural heritage, but museums can also offer other asisstance. Here are some other initiatives:
Storage space
- Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
- Berlin, Germany
The Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation is offering storage space in adequate depots for cultural heritage that has been evacuated from war.
- Allied Museum
- Berlin, Germany
The Allied Museum is offering storage space for cultural artefacts that have been evacuated from war-torn Ukraine. They are a small museum with limited space but are happy to accept objects from Ukraine in their storage facilities on a temporary basis until perhaps a central facility has been created.
- Anno Museum
- Elverum, Norway
In case of an emergency movement of large collections out of Ukraine, Anno Museum can offer this storage facility in order to keep these collections on one site with high standards for collection care and conservation.
- Museum der Westlausitz
- Kamenz, Germany
Should it be necessary for collections to be stored outside Ukraine, the museums of the administrative district can offer storage space in adequate depots, conservational care, and if necessary, logistical support during the evacuation.
- National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
- Oslo, Norway
Please contact the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design when in need of safe storage space or conservatory aid to protect the invaluable cultural heritage from being extinguished.
Consultation
- Historical Archive of the City of Cologne
- Cologne, Germany
The Archive is offering consultations to provide assistance online, and when it is safe to travel to Ukraine they can organise help with salvaging collections on-site. Furthermore, the archive is able to offer storage space in our air-conditioned strong rooms. They can also carry out vacuum freeze-drying of frozen previously water damaged objects.
Welcoming museum professionals and their families
- Portuguese Association of Museology
- Lisbon, Portugal
Welcoming museology professionals as well as their families. Associação Portuguesa de Museologia will provide them with proactive support in their integration in Portugal. APOM will provide bureaucratic and institutional support. It will also assist with surveying, inventorisation, conservation and safeguarding of museum collections, including in loco, should it be safe to travel to Ukraine.
- European Solidarity Centre
- Gdańsk, Poland
There is a room for the Ukrainian community available – the Self-Help Committee “Ukrainians for Ukrainians”.
Scholarships
- Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
- Oświęcim, Poland
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, in cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum, has decided to provide support. The Foundation has launched a program of scholarships for professional development in the field of conservation of objects of martyrdom for Ukrainian conservators, with the aim of providing equal job opportunities.
- Rathgen-Forschungslabor
- Berlin, Germany
In an attempt to aid local scientists and students from Ukraine, and those eligible from Russia and Belarus, the research institute provides the Rathgen Heritage Science Scholarship 2022. It enables emerging professionals to undertake a research project at the laboratory within a three-month duration, which can be extended by request in order to apply for longer-term follow-up funding.
Ticket Donations
- Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
- Lausanne, Switzerland
To show the museum’s commitment to helping the Ukrainian citizens, on March 12 and 13, the profit made by the tickets sale was donated to Chaine du Bonheur, a Swiss fundraising organization.
Exhibitions & Museum Spaces
- Zeppelin Museum
- Friedrichshafen, Germany
The Zeppelin Museum now offers all Ukrainian citizens free admission to its exhibitions – and a chance to use the museum as their living room and work space. The Zeppelin Museum is also happy to welcome young visitors and children. Starting Easter weekend, the ZeppLab will be transformed into a creative space for children.
- Finnish Heritage Agency, Picture Collections
- Helsinki, Finland
The Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency is documenting phenomena and events related to the Russian invasion and war in Ukraine, e.g. sanctions and actions against Russia in Finland.
- Warsaw Museum of Modern Art
- Warsaw, Poland
They have already hosted Ukrainian poetry readings, stress relief workshops, Ukrainian-language classes for volunteers, and have a more organized collection of medical supplies that are regularly sent to Ukraine. They are planning further cooperation with artists, writers, and activists in Ukraine itself, as well as producing a journal of ‘counter-propoganda’.
Translation
Maidan Museum & ICCROM
Kyiv, Ukraine
UNESCO, ICCROM and the Maidan Museum in Kyiv (Ukraine) have translated the manual Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections into Ukrainian. UNESCO will support the distribution of some 2,000 printed copies across Ukraine, to areas with no or limited internet access.
For more details on how museums can help out fellow heritage workers in Ukraine, check out the Museum’s Association statement.