Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has caused countless crimes, suffering and victims. In such circumstances people are the most important – the civilian population exposed to barbaric bombardments, the soldiers fighting the aggressor. Ukrainians are dying today defending their homeland.

However, every war also means irreparable damage to national heritage and culture. Today, Ukraine’s museums face extreme challenges – how to protect and save their collections or how to preserve the legacy of many generations under their care.

Poland understands this all too well. The plundering and destruction of cultural property in our country assumed exceptional proportions during the Second World War, culminating in the total looting and annihilation of Warsaw during the Warsaw Rising and immediately after its fall. No nation or state should ever again suffer similar losses. Today, unfortunately, there is a threat of this happening to Ukraine.

Therefore, in order to prevent a catastrophe and to support our colleagues from Ukraine, we are setting up the Committee for Aid to Museums of Ukraine.

Its primary objectives are:

– support of all museums and cultural institutions in Ukraine securing their collections, the most valuable memorabilia and monuments of Ukrainian culture;

– support in documentation, digitalisation and inventory of collections;

– transferring materials necessary for securing and hiding collections

– sharing experiences;

– collecting documentation proving the plunder and destruction of Ukrainian cultural property.

 

 

The struggle to preserve the cultural and national heritage of Ukraine is our common fight!

The secretariat of the Committee is located in the Warsaw Rising Museum, 79 Grzybowska Street, Warsaw.

The person appointed to contact and coordinate the Committee’s activities is Anna Drozd; phone: (+48) 22 376 68 36 – number served in Ukrainian, (+48) 22 376 68 43 – number served in Polish and English, mobile: (+48) 451 056 094, e-mail: info@muzealnicydlaukrainy.pl.

Yesterday, we started contacting museums from Ukraine in order to identify their needs; it is possible for us to travel to Ukraine, we are looking for sponsors and logistic partners.

At the same time we ask you to share your contacts to Ukrainian museums sending a message to the e-mail address above.

The Committee for Aid to Museums of Ukraine will be active on social media:

– on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuzealnicyDlaUkrainy

– and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MuzeaUkrainie.

Through social media we can be contacted by Ukrainian museums and institutions wishing to report the need for assistance, as well as Polish museums and institutions wishing to join the Committee’s work.

Messages posted on the aforementioned channels will always be in two language versions: Polish and Ukrainian.

We encourage institutions and museums that are members of the Committee to share information from the Committee’s profiles in their own social media channels.

The current Committee members are:

Robert Andrzejczyk – Director of the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek

Grzegorz Berendt – Director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk

Piotr Cywiński – Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Hubert Czachowski – Director of the Ethnographic Museum in Toruń

Wojciech Fałkowski – Director of the Royal Castle in Warsaw

Dorota Folga-Januszewska – Deputy Director of the King John III Wilanów Palace Museum

Jacek Friedrich – Director of the National Museum in Gdańsk

Dariusz Gawin – Deputy Director of the Warsaw Rising Museum

Piotr Górajec – Deputy Director of the King John III Wilanów Palace Museum

Karolina Grabowicz-Matyjas – Director of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia

Adolf Juzwenko – Director of the Ossolineum – the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław

Alicja Knast – Director of the National Gallery in Prague

Robert Kostro – Director of the Polish History Museum

Paweł Kowal – Expert of the Warsaw Rising Museum

Marek Lasota – Director of the Home Army Museum in Krakow

Marek Mutor – Director of the Depot History Centre in Wrocław

Joanna Mytkowska – Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

Grzegorz Nowik – Deputy Director of the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek

Jan Ołdakowski – Director of the Warsaw Rising Museum

Marianna Otmianowska – Deputy Director of the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw

Robert Sadowski – Director of the Army Museum in Białystok

Albert Stankowski – Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum

Paweł Ukielski – Deputy Director of the Warsaw Rising Museum

Zbigniew Wawer – Director of the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw

Hanna Wróblewska – Vice-President of ICOM Poland

Robert Zydel – Director of the Warsaw Ethnographic Museum