Yuri Yanchyshyn (left), Mykola Bevz (right) with a Leica P40 laser scanner in Kraków, Poland. Photo: Marcin Jończyk

Dover, New Hampshire: Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research today announced the contribution of a high-tech laser scanner, software, and workstation to the department of Architecture and Conservation, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine. This milestone enables Red Arch, a US-based 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, to assist Ukrainian scholars with the documentation of wooden religious architecture under threat by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The project is made possible by funding from the Knights of Columbus.

“Architectural heritage is an important feature of cultural identity, and we must help Ukraine protect it,” says Carolyn Guile, Executive Director of Red Arch. “High-resolution scanning is a form of preservation, as it provides a detailed documentation and a structural record of a building. Scans of this type provide digital images of important historical buildings, facilitate scientific study, and assist in the production of archives.”

Mykola Bevz, who heads the Department of Architecture and Restoration at Lviv Polytechnic National University, said, “Although there are current Russian pseudo-theories as to the nonexistence of the Ukrainian nation, the wooden churches of Ukraine demonstrate the great difference in traditions between Ukrainians and Russians — they are completely different cultures. In light of that, Ukrainian wooden churches have to be protected.”

“This equipment will make it possible to very accurately record the architectural facades of wooden churches that are still undocumented,” notes Yuri Yanchyshyn, a well-known professional conservator in New York, formerly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who contributed to this project.”

Included in the equipment package was a laser scanner and related hardware and software needed to obtain architectural scans. Red Arch delivered the equipment to the Ukrainian partners, who will deploy it to document architectural heritage in conflict zones around the country.

This donation marks the culmination of the first phase of a fundraising initiative aimed at assisting Ukrainian scholars and heritage preservation specialists in their work to protect Ukrainian cultural heritage from damage and destruction. The overall objectives of the initiative include:

Fundraising, acquisition, and delivery of hardware and software exclusively for documentation of architectural heritage
Supporting trained experts in documentation and analysis
Contributing to a broader awareness of the need to protect vulnerable architectural heritage

About Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law and Policy Research: Red Arch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in the state of New Hampshire, USA. Our team members are legal, museum, law enforcement, art and architecture, and media professionals whose mission is to generate solutions to legal, political, and risk management problems affecting cultural heritage threatened by looting, trafficking, theft, vandalism, and war. Our work is intended to assist government policymakers, legal counsel, law enforcement, museum professionals, archaeologists, art and antiquities dealers, auction houses, collectors, conservators and restorers, local stakeholders, and other cultural heritage professionals.

To learn more about Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law and Policy Research, click here.

Red Arch partners with Lviv Polytechnic National University to preserve and protect cultural heritage in war-torn Ukraine