Ukrainian Culture at Risk - Again
the following was posted to the Global Conservation Forum, an international email list of over 3,500 art conservators world wide on March 1, 2022
UKRAINIAN CULTURE AT RISK - AGAIN
“I’m suffering from severe depression due to the current situation. I’m over stressed and the threat to my life is real. One of my colleagues lost her complete apartment due to an explosion when her residential building came under fire…” a conservator in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Sunday, February 27, 2022.
On Thursday, February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, began a war against Ukraine. As a conservator and Fulbright Specialist and Fellow in Ukraine for the last number of years, I have received many inquiries and expressions of sympathy for the conservators I have met there. However, since this war creates a significant risk to Ukraine's cultural heritage, still largely unknown in the West, and to the conservators and other arts professionals who care for it, I wanted to provide a brief introduction to the historical context of the multi-ethnic culture of Ukraine, the current state of conservation in the country, and to suggest possibilities for assisting with the ever-increasing humanitarian crisis.
BACKGROUND
For a brief overview of Ukraine's history and insights as to why this war affects not only conservators but all individuals in the West, please view the Harvard University lecture by Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale, given a week before the crisis occurred. The Q&A following the presentation is especially insightful.
Like many normal countries, Ukraine has had periods of the destruction of its culture. However, the 20c has been particularly devastating to Ukraine since many such events were purposeful. For an introduction to the destruction of Ukrainian iconostasis in the 1930s, please focus on the middle portion of Svitlana Olianina's presentation on the History, Construction, and Conservation of Ukrainian Iconostasis, a UK ICOMOS event, given on September 2021..
WWII witnessed the destruction of all Jewish wooden synagogues in Ukraine by the occupying Nazi regime. Numerous masonry temples were destroyed as well. One can find an introduction to their history in Oksana Boyko's groundbreaking Синагоги Львова - The Synagogues of Lviv, ВНТЛ Класика, Львів 2008 ISBN 966-8849-30-2 (in Ukrainian) and her article Синагога міста Җовкви - Synagogues of Zhovkva (in Ukrainian) here.
The following link will take you to an article and photographs based on her writings about the once magnificent 1687 Zhovkva Synagogue, currently in ruins, which my students and I visited (in Ukrainian).
http://www.kray.org.ua/9026/mandrivky/zhovkivska-sinagoga-oboronna-perlina-svitovoyi-yudayiki/
After WWII, many churches in Ukraine were closed, the buildings were utilized as storage facilities, and their contents were slated for destruction as an anti-religion Soviet policy. During this period, Borys Voznytsky, a courageous curator from the Lviv National Art Gallery, traveled throughout the regions and rescued over 1,200 Renaissance and Baroque polychrome sculptures from the affected sites. Unfortunately, these sculptures and polychromy are currently unstable and housed in an unregulated storage facility with a significant insect presence. The following link will take you to an image.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/987bqp139bkauy2/DSC09508A.jpg?dl=0
An overview of the current state of conservation in Ukraine, primarily limited to wooden objects, and my Fulbright activities there can be found in the following AIC WAG postprint, as well as a short film prepared for the Fulbright Ukraine Foundation
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3dazckc8dvqq9v/WAG%20Postprints%202019-Fulbright%20article.pdf?dl=0
The details of safeguarding museum art repositories will not be discussed in this posting however the current war has already destroyed a small but noted museum. Link here
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/arts/design/maria-primachenko-paintings-destroyed-ukraine.html
OF IMMEDIATE HUMAN CONCERN
The safety of human life is paramount. Ukrainian conservators who chose to remain in the capital Kyiv are currently in fear for their lives. As of Sunday, March 6, 2022, there were over 1,500,000 refugees from the Ukraine war in neighboring countries. A small contribution can make a meaningful difference. If you can donate funds to alleviate the tremendous human suffering currently occurring, the following websites are an option.
The oldest American humanitarian organization assisting Ukrainians:
UUARC is a non-profit organization recognized by the IRS under Article 501(c)3, every gift is tax-deductible and the donor receives an acknowledgement for the donation. Please click the “Read More” on the link for detailed information.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/humanitarian-aid-to-victims-of-war-in-ukraine
Hospitallers working at the frontline:
https://www.facebook.com/hospitallers/posts/2953630548255167
NGO that assists internal refugees:
NGO that assists internal refugees, especially from Crimea:
https://www.peaceinsight.org/en/organisations/crimea-sos/?location=ukraine&theme
NGO that aids traumatized children:
Foundation that assists healthcare and education in eastern Ukraine:
Evacuation and medical assistance:
https://www.lphr.org/en/humanitaere-soforthilfe-fuer-die-ukraine/
Humanitarian assistance:
Malteser International evacuation assistance.
(Make sure you have selected "Ukraine")
https://www.malteser-international.org/en/donation.html?amount=100&interval=0&fb_item_id=24633
LONG TERM CONSERVATION INITIATIVES
At some point this war will end, and the process of healing will begin.
As of this writing, numerous conservation initiatives for the summer months of 2022 have been put on hold, including a workshop devoted to the conservation assessment of the 1613 Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Drohobych, Ukraine, as well as the completion of this conservator's Fulbright teaching Award at the Lviv Polytechnic National University.
However, some are active, such as a Master's Degree literature review thesis for the above-mentioned church in Drohobych by a student from the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. Another active project is a Ukrainian version of Michele Marincola's recent book, The Conservation of Medieval Polychrome Wood Sculpture. This publication would address the need for an up-to-date conservation text to treat the over 1,200 Renaissance and Baroque Polychrome Wood Sculptures mentioned earlier and serve as a model for what the West has to offer. Currently, there are no up-to-date conservation texts published in Ukrainian.
The items mentioned above only skim the surface of an immense human and cultural tragedy. Ukraine is a young European sovereign state with a long and complex history and is in the process of addressing its past and how best to preserve it and the current war. There is a genuine hunger for our core values, and the current events challenge not only Ukrainians but also us. We, as conservators, can play a vital role in this process. Ukrainian conservators and Ukraine as a country are asking for your help.
Yuri Yanchyshyn, Professional Associate American Institute for Conservation, March 1, 2022
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Thank You, and a Suggestion
I want to thank the numerous conservators, conservation scientists, and other professionals in our field, worldwide, for their expressions of sympathy and concern, as well as the generous humanitarian donations to alleviate the crisis in Ukraine, posted both here and privately. The war in Ukraine has grown to a staggering proportion since my initial posting on March 2, 2022. According to the UN, as of Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the number of refugees is now approximately 2 million,
The direct cause of this humanitarian crisis - the indiscriminate shelling of cities - ravages Ukraine’s physical culture and people.
Currently, monuments and repositories in western Ukraine are undergoing protective maintenance. A few examples here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ud0pzhrfttu7nis/Protective%20Maintenence2.pdf?dl=0
Other sites, especially in eastern Ukraine, have not been as fortunate. Numerous individuals and organizations are organizing lists of damaged cultural monuments. Posting will occur in due course. The safety and security of art repositories are also of significant concern.
Thankfully, as of today, three conservators in Kyiv whom I know personally are still alive, though very much at risk. I have been sending them foundational conservation texts to keep up their spirits at their request. They realized that I will not return in the late spring to complete my Fulbright teaching award and decided to get a head start on my lectures. For them, conserving Ukraines cultural artifacts, on a Western model, is an important goal.
Longer-term, what future Ukrainian conservators will need — what we often take for granted — is the training available in the excellent educational institutions in the West. To that end, I suggest that art conservation educational programs outside of Ukraine consider a flexible approach to accepting qualified Ukrainian conservation program candidates. As matters stand now, there will be a considerable amount of Ukrainian art to conserve in the future.
I wish Ukrainians safety and calm in this terrible trial.
Yuri Yanchyshyn, Professional Associate American Institute for Conservation, March 9, 2022