For Ukraine鈥檚 museums, Russia鈥檚 war gives 鈥榩reservation鈥� new meaning
| Odesa, Ukraine
The descent into the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum鈥檚 200-year-old grottoes is laden with both heavy allure and 100% humidity. Kateryna Kulai, the museum director, leads the way down a winding staircase from the basement of the museum 鈥� tucked inside Odesa鈥檚 opulent, neoclassical Potocki Palace 鈥� to the natural, flooded caves.
The museum鈥檚 intricate history is mirrored in its physical layers. Passages from the grotto fan into catacombs that once led to the Black Sea. In World War II, they protected civilians and artworks from Nazi bombings.
Since Russia鈥檚 attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the underground has once again served as a refuge. Frames stripped of art lie in piles in the museum basement, the artwork itself hastily packed and funneled to secret, safer locations. Ms. Kulai says she dreams of the day when they are restored to their former glory.
Why We Wrote This
Ukraine鈥檚 cultural institutions aren鈥檛 just casualties of the Russian invasion of the country. They鈥檙e deliberate targets of the Kremlin鈥檚 campaign. That has made the security, and eventual restoration, of the cultural cache a priority for museums in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has been waging a long-running 鈥淩ussification鈥� campaign in parallel with its military efforts 鈥� attempting to destroy the very identity and values that are core to Ukraine by , , and . In response, every cultural institution in Ukraine feels a deep sense of responsibility to the rebuilding of Ukrainian society, says Ms. Kulai, and many are pivoting to strategies that will help fortify future foundations even as the war continues.
鈥淢useums have become spaces where communities can preserve memory, process trauma, and reimagine shared values,鈥� she says.
鈥淓very war is intent on erasing the culture of some people. It鈥檚 about rewriting in people鈥檚 brains a new history,鈥� says Yulia Vaganova, director of the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv, which has the largest and most valuable collections of Asian, European, and ancient art in the nation. 鈥漌hat鈥檚 happening right now is a war aimed at identity.鈥�
Culture on the battle lines
In 2017, Oleksandra Kovalchuk, the former deputy director of the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, founded Museum for Change, a nongovernmental organization meant to provide fundraising and communication support to Odesa鈥檚 various museums and cultural institutions. Its mandate received a new, different sense of urgency with Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion, turning its focus toward supporting preservation of collections and the sustainability of museums.
鈥淭his work never stops,鈥� Ms. Kovalchuk says. 鈥淭he situation is rapidly changing on the battle lines; we have to react to that. The amount of cultural heritage that we鈥檙e working with is huge, somewhere between 12 and 20 million objects.鈥�
In collaboration with local authorities, international donors, and UNESCO, Museum for Change has supported over 100 Ukrainian museums, securing more than 300,000 artifacts and artworks.
Museum for Change also organizes lectures and workshops dedicated to emergency responses to cultural attacks. Such events bring together students, artists, experienced cultural professionals and researchers, plus individuals from completely different fields united by a shared awareness of the importance of protecting Ukraine鈥檚 heritage.
鈥淏y creating platforms for dialogue, learning, and community building to foster empathy, solidarity, and hope, we are directly contributing to the rebuilding of Ukrainian society,鈥� says Ms. Kulai, the museum director who also works as manager of Museum for Change. 鈥淎s an institution, we recognize how culture is a bastion of our safety and national identity,鈥� she adds. 鈥淲e also understand that if Odesa were invaded by Russians, that would be unbearable.鈥�
She notes that museum evacuations were 鈥渁 weak point of governmental policies.鈥� In the run-up to the war in late 2021, the National Fine Arts Museum administration started preparing to relocate its works of art. 鈥淲e saw how the political situation [between Russia and Ukraine] was degraded.鈥�
After the invasion finally came on Feb. 24, 2022, workers began packing up artwork early the next morning. The following week, the first wave of evacuations shuttled art to secret locations across Europe and to relative safety in western Ukraine. At present, roughly three-quarters of the museum鈥檚 10,000 pieces are out of Odesa.
Building a national archive
Olga Balashova, co-founder of the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) and Wartime Art Archive, has similarly been working on concrete plans with her team on strategies that integrate society at large to counter long-term Russian colonization attempts.
The Wartime Art Archive, founded upon Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion as a long-term research and institutional organization, aggregates and preserves artwork derived from the war and disseminated primarily through social media. It operates on an open-source model and has collected more than 10,000 artworks from 220 artists.
鈥淲e are planning a series of international research and exhibition projects based on the archive, including collaborations with King鈥檚 College London,鈥� Dr. Balashova explains. 鈥淭hese projects are aimed at integrating Ukrainian wartime artistic production into an international academic and cultural context, while keeping authorship, context, and ethical framing firmly anchored in Ukraine.鈥�
The UMCA, which is foremost a collection of Ukrainian art, does not have a dedicated campus, but is instead focused on facilitating access to its art in multiple locations. This year, it is launching its first physical hub in Vinnytsia, a historic city in central Ukraine. This pilot museum site will test new institutional models under wartime and postwar conditions, she explains. The museum held an architectural competition April 7-9 in the city to determine a design for the site.
Dr. Balashova says the UMCA鈥檚 forthcoming site in Vinnytsia is not only about exhibition-making, but also building a sustainable cultural infrastructure outside the capital and creating a long-term institutional presence, despite the volatility of everyday life.
Physically girding art
A year prior to the full-scale invasion, Catarina Buchatskiy co-founded The Shadows Project along with Agatha Gorski and Kvitka Perehinets, who are also passionate about advocating for Ukrainian identity. Together, they developed an organization centered on preserving Ukrainian culture, knowing their nation鈥檚 future would ultimately be decided on the information and narrative battleground.
鈥淧eople鈥檚 will to fight, how much they decide to fight, defines the future of nation states,鈥� says Ms. Buchatskiy.
Since the war began, The Shadows Project has been distributing protective gear to shield historical monuments and precious art from shelling and missile blasts to several museums in the capital, such as the Museum of Kyiv and the Museum of Holodomor (the unnatural famine of the early 1930s that killed millions of Ukrainians).
They have also partnered with the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv to digitize the 1,000-year-old graffiti decorating its sacred cathedral walls. To Ms. Buchatskiy, the graffiti is yet another hallmark of Kyiv鈥檚 rich history. 鈥淢any came and went and left their mark. It shows how the cathedral served as a school, community center, even a daycare. Much of the graffiti is written in Ukrainian, before Russia, before Moscow even existed.鈥�
鈥淥ur ancestors were doing us a favor by putting these things in writing, an alphabet carved in stone.鈥�
This reporting was supported by the International Women鈥檚 Media Foundation鈥檚 Women on the Ground: Reporting from Ukraine鈥檚 Unseen Frontlines Initiative in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Svitlana Vlasova contributed to this report.
