Digitisation of Museums in Ukraine
The war has not spared the cultural sphere – monuments and museums are being bombed and looted. Ukrainian cultural institution staff therefore face a special task, in which the Solidarity Fund PL supports them by implementing an electronic system for managing data on museum collections.
After 24 February 2022, the media were filled with images of monuments: in Kyiv, only the head of the Taras Shevchenko statue protrudes from a special protective structure, soon to be completely enclosed; in Odesa, the monument to Duke de Richelieu stands surrounded up to the neck with sandbags. In this way, Ukrainians are trying to protect their heritage, which, in addition to its artistic and historical value, now carries immense symbolic significance.
Acts of Saving Culture Amid Destruction
The rescue of cultural sites in Ukraine is accompanied by images of devastating loss. The Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum burned down, destroying most of the works of folk artist Maria Prymachenko, whose art had captivated Pablo Picasso at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. In Mariupol, the Arkhip Kuindzhi Art Museum was bombed – while some of its collections were saved by staff who moved them to safety beforehand, most were destroyed.
These are only a few examples of the cultural losses Ukraine has suffered. According to UNESCO, since the start of the full-scale war, 241 cultural sites have been destroyed (as of 24 February 2023), including: 106 religious sites, 18 museums, 86 buildings of historical or artistic significance, 19 monuments, and 12 libraries. Russian attacks on cultural property are deliberate. Some collections are looted and taken out of Ukraine, while the occupying forces also destroy paper museum records containing information about the collections.
How We Provide Support
In these circumstances, it is especially important to collect data on museum objects in a systematic and centralised way. At present, paper documentation is stored in museums together with the collections. The Solidarity Fund PL – in cooperation with Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – has developed and implemented an electronic museum data management system to improve the digitisation and inventory of collections.
The platform makes it possible to store and manage data, grant access to it, and organise resources more effectively. In the future, it will be integrated with international systems tracking the movement of artworks, including loans for temporary exhibitions, which will help detect cases of illicit trade. By the end of 2022, a basic version of the platform was completed, along with a user support system, including online training for a pilot group of recipients. Staff from 12 Ukrainian museums tested the platform’s functionalities, with their feedback and suggestions incorporated into further development.
The platform will be expanded to include features that allow more institutions to use it. The system is maintained and managed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, which was actively involved in its design and implementation. Polish cultural institutions have also expressed interest in using this tool.
Digital Protection
Digital solutions like the platform developed with SFPL’s support are part of a wider system for managing and safeguarding cultural heritage – essential for centralising and organising information on resources, improving access to data, and facilitating digitisation.
Introducing such tools in the cultural sector is vital not only in wartime, although their importance increases dramatically in these conditions. This is evident from Poland’s own experience – during World War II, the country lost hundreds of thousands of works of art, many forever. Some were destroyed in the fighting, while others – like Raphael’s famous Portrait of a Young Man – were looted and taken abroad, never to be recovered.