Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Allow me to express my appreciation and introduce to you our project “Cultural Front” of the Pidhirtsi Castle Charitable Foundation, which was launched on November 1, 2022, with the support of the Press, Education and Culture Section of the US Embassy in Ukraine.
Today, the issue of preserving memory is back on the agenda for the first time since World War II. We must protect our heritage not only from the passage of time, but also from military aggression, which has become relevant again. As of February 2023, more than 1500 episodes of war crimes committed by the russian federation against the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine have been documented, and more than 1500 museums have been destroyed. Accordingly, the problem of preserving and restoring historical and cultural heritage is more acute than ever and requires the wide involvement of experts.
The issues of reforming the process of keeping safe museum and archive collections in wartime, digitizing collections, introducing modern standards, ensuring energy modernization using innovative technologies, creating inclusive spaces, and restoring historical and cultural heritage – all this makes it necessary to have a professional discussion with the involvement of international experts with world’s leading expertise.
That is why the goal of the Cultural Front project is to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine, namely: monitoring the state of digitization and achieving the most efficient digitalization of museum and archive collections, disseminating information on the available opportunities for preserving historical and cultural heritage, on destroyed and damaged historical and cultural heritage sites and their significance for Ukraine and the world, establishing and maintaining contacts between the leadership of the professional museum and archival communities, local governments, and international experts aiming to restore and preserve the historical and cultural heritage; organizing the Forum of the same name “Cultural Front. The Art of Victory” on December 8-9, 2023 in Lviv in online and offline formats and maintaining global attention to the crimes of the russian federation against the cultural heritage of Ukraine.
The target audience of the Cultural Front project is the professional museum and archival community, as well as experts, architects, historians, interested business representatives, international donors, representatives of the government and parliament, the Office of the President of Ukraine, local governments, the media, and other stakeholders.
We invite the professional community and all interested parties to join the discussion for the success of our country’s cultural front. We are working for a common victory!
Sincerely,
Director of the Pidhirtsi Castle Charitable Foundation
Head of the Cultural Front project
Viktor Kushnirenko
and the project team
