Center to Rescue Ukraine's Cultural Heritage

CENTER TO RESCUE CULTURAL HERITAGE MISSION STATEMENT

Dear Colleagues!

The war against Ukraine has arrived, already impacting its cities and villages and destroying the lives of so many of our compatriots. A war which is dominating our hearts and minds.

Ukraine is a peaceful, righteous nation with core religious values, yet we are willing to stand up in our own defense. We have now become soldiers in the face of evil aggression. Those experienced in combat, our fearless warriors, are protecting our land with weapons in their arms as the inexperienced learn quickly to join in the effort. We see everyone, young and old, armed and unarmed, ready to defend their homeland, each fighting on their own personal front to make their contribution.

We too are trying to help by creating the Center to Rescue Cultural Heritage. Our historical cultural landmarks are symbols of our identity: examples of the wisdom, intelligence, and spirituality of the Ukrainian nation. This is what worries our enemy the most, and where the enemy directs their destructive force—to destroy and erase our historical landmarks, comprising the art and architecture we hold sacred. That is why it is our duty to make an effort to save and preserve them. Here in Lviv, cultural institutions and museums are doing their part to protect our treasured art, but they also need help and support. The Center to Rescue Cultural Heritage appeals to international organizations, museums, and cultural institutions for help with much needed equipment and materials, which are being collected by the Center in the Science Library building of Lviv Polytechnic National University (Profesorska Street, 1) for further distribution where needed. We are grateful for your help.

The following materials are needed for preservation, packing, and protection from fire:

Chests, mineral wool, chipboard, plywood, bubble wrap, scotch tape, masking tape, stretch film, fireproof materials, foil, mounting foam, polyfoam sheets, mica tape.

Coordinators: Roman Metelskij +38 0676759384
Natalya Filevych + 38 0507849388, taljaf@gmail.com
Ihor Harmash + 38 0676182520

March 1, 2022

Center to Rescue Ukraine's Cultural Heritage in Lviv, Ukraine
Our Short Long History
By Natalia Filevych
April 9, 2022

On February 24, 2022, Russia treacherously attacked Ukraine. When the first waves of stress, tremors and fear passed, everyone thought – what can I do, what can I do and how can I help on the way to our Victory?

We gathered almost spontaneously. We knew that our soldiers were already defending their homeland with weapons in their hands, and thousands of volunteers were joining them. We knew that there were people who cared for those who were forced to flee as refugees, and hundreds of people joined the volunteer ranks. But who should take care of exactly why the enemy came to our land and which he wishes to destroy – the preservation of historical and cultural monuments – the evidence of our identity, proof of antiquity, wisdom, the high level of education and spirituality of the Ukrainian nation? These values worry the enemy the most, and he directs the main blow at this – to erase and destroy our historical memory, as evidenced by priceless artistic and spiritual treasures, architectural monuments, sacred buildings.

Certain actions had already begun in the city to protect our shrines – stained glass windows and windows in churches and cathedrals had been covered. We began to think: what can we do to help museums and cultural institutions to preserve and protect collections, monuments and sacred buildings in this unexpected whirlwind of war?

Natalia Filevych, Andriy Bokotey and Roman Metelskij receive the first car of humanitarian museum aid from Warsaw.

Unloading the second rail car of humanitarian museum aid from Warsaw.

Thus, in Lviv on March 1, 2022, the public initiative Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage was formed on the basis of NGO Center for Historical Memory, headed by Roman Metelskij. The initiators and founders included:
- Ivan Shchurko - Deputy of the Lviv Regional Council, Chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage;
- Andriy Klimashevsky - Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Head of the Museum of Ethnography;
- Roman Metelskij - Chair of the Board of the Ukrainian Photographic Society;
- Ihor Harmash - Chair of the Board of the Art-Space Center for Arts, Regional Representative of the Ukrainian Center for Cultural Studies of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy;
- Natalia Filevych - Chair of the Board of the Nahirny Charitable Foundation, a member of ICOM;
- Vasyl Petryk - Head of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Department of Architecture and Development of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Scientific Secretary of the Ukrainian National Committee of ICOMOS.

The most important thing to do in times of war is to record the criminal destruction of monuments. This area of work has been taken under the control of the Ministry of Culture and is being performed with dignity. The testimonies of human victims are terrible. The physical testimonies of our defenseless shrines are also terrible.

The priority task of our Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage is assistance to museums, cultural institutions, archives and sacred buildings in the preservation and protection of our cultural heritage. We realized that we alone could not accomplish these tasks, and so we turned to international cultural organizations to help with equipment, packaging and conservation materials, and fire-fighting equipment to protect and preserve these priceless resources.

An emotional letter, translated into several languages and sent with the help of Ukrainian and Polish colleagues, was the beginning of our communication and cooperation with foreign partners:
"Dear colleagues!
Today there is a war in Ukraine. The war, which has already entered Ukrainian cities and villages, has taken and damaged the lives of many of our compatriots. It has entered our hearts, our heads, our blood. Ukrainians are a peaceful nation and our blood is not filled with rage, and we do not want to shed anyone's blood. But when the enemy, who chose Moloch as his god, and trampled our God and came to our land, we were transformed. We became warriors. Those who are trained to fight like our fearless soldiers defend their land with weapons in their hands. Those who are not trained will soon learn, but we see that everyone – from young men and women to the aged, with or without weapons, are ready to defend our land, our homeland. Everyone has their own front, everyone in their place wants to contribute to the Victory. And so are we.”

Unloading of the second rail car of humanitarian museum aid from Warsaw.

The information and needs announced in the letter reached an organization which was established in Poland at almost the same time as our Center – the Committee for Ukrainian Museums (Komitet Pomocy Muzeom Ukraińskim).

We immediately established cooperation with the Committee and with the wonderful Ms. Anna Drozd from the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising (Anna Drozd, Head of the Outdoor Exhibitions Department). It was agreed that large deliveries of volunteer assistance from other European countries would arrive at the hub owned by the Committee and be delivered to us from there. Smaller cargoes would be delivered to the city of Lublin, where Mr. Grzegorz Józefczuk, President of the Lublin Bruno Schulz Society, would receive the goods and with the help of colleagues transport them to Lviv. The first aid that came to us was actually packaging materials collected through the efforts of colleagues and patrons from the city of Lublin.
A page was immediately created on Facebook, where informational support of the Center's work is provided. Thus, in a very short time, the staff of the Ukrainian Photographic Society shot and posted videos with consultations and recommendations of experts on the professional preservation and storage of artifacts. Also valuable are videos on the rescue of museum funds during the war, provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA).

It was necessary to develop a mechanism for the work of the Center – to receive, store and transfer to museums and other cultural and sacred sites the volunteer assistance that was to come. As a result, an information and logistics office-hub for the Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage was organized on the premises of the Scientific and Technical Library of the Lviv Polytechnic National University.

Improvised storage facilities of the Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage in the lobby of the Scientific and Technical Library of the Lviv Polytechnic National University.

Packaging materials for museums are received in the city of Dnipro.

Financial aid also began to arrive. The Nahirny Charitable Foundation has long collaborated with the USA-based Foundation to Preserve Ukraine's Sacral Arts (FTPUSA), chaired by Ms. Khristina Lew. One of the members of the Board of the Foundation, Myron Stachiw, an architectural historian and preservation specialist and a member of both the American and Ukrainian National Committees of ICOMOS, provided information about our activities to ICON in the UK, and international organizations and museums around the world began to contact us. Thanks to these contacts, as well as the information we have sent using other sources, we now have extensive correspondence and real help for our museums, both financially and materially.

Thanks to the efforts of the Committee for Ukrainian Museums, the Center received railway assistance. The first rail car was filled with supplies thanks to several Polish museums, and the second with materials and funds received from Denmark (Blue Shield Denmark & Museumstjenesten) and Norway (The University Museum of Bergen, Norway). In Lublin, Poland, cargo from Slovenia and England is waiting to be sent to us. Packaging materials from Riga and the National Library of Hamburg were also transported by separate vehicles.

We continue to receive inquiries from many museums in Ukraine, the priority being the needs of those in the East and South, in areas threatened by hostilities. We transfer these materials and financial assistance (more than 15,000 USD to date) to the museums in different ways – by volunteer buses and cars, and through bank transfers. During the first month of our work, about 30 museums from different cities and towns of Ukraine, as well as Lviv museums, received assistance with packaging, security materials or finances. We also cooperate closely with the Ukrainian National Committee ICOMOS, and with the Institute "Polonika."

We are convinced that the work we are doing now justifies the name of the Center we have created – it helps to save what, like human life, is considered invaluable – our heritage. And it – our heritage – saves us too.

Humanitarian museum assistance from friends.

Loading a car with packaging materials for a museum in Zaporizhia.