"Motherland" sculpture in Kiev
Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Smithsonian has been a key player in the fight to protect and share Ukraine’s heritage. The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI) activated its network of experts, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. The work includes purchasing emergency supplies and equipment for Ukrainian cultural institutions, monitoring cultural heritage sites, and providing technical advice and guidance to Ukrainian museums, memorials, monuments, places of worship, libraries, and archaeological sites.
With advice from SAAM/Lunder Center, SCRI has provided vital conservation equipment to the Ukrainian National Center for Restoration and Research to use in monitoring collections that were evacuated to storage sites throughout Ukraine. SCRI staff and conservators from SAAM/Lunder Center were in touch with the Odesa Fine Art Museum immediately after it was damaged by Russian shelling on the night of Nov. 6, 2023. The resulting consultation helped museum staff and conservators stabilize and evacuate large-scale paintings that needed to be removed from their frames. Remote sensing technology is being used to detect, assess, and document damage to cultural sites such as the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, which was burned down, and the Kherson Art Museum, which was looted. Specialists are consulting on emergency preparedness, emergency response, and preventive conservation strategies to protect vulnerable collections; they also have taught disaster planning and response workshops with UNESCO and other partners.
Hear updates on the Smithsonian’s work in and for Ukraine from Corine Wegener, director of the SCRI; Hayden Bassett, a Smithsonian research associate and director of the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab; and Amber Kerr, head of conservation, SAAM/Lunder Conservation Center.
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