The National Museum of Ukrainian History invites you to a public discussion on the topic: "Frontline and displaced museums: life in 'special conditions'.
The event, dedicated to the experience of museums in temporarily occupied and frontline territories, will bring together representatives of museum institutions, local historians, researchers, the public, and the media who care about the fate of museums for a meaningful discussion.
The organizers and partners of the event are the National Museum of Ukrainian History, the Mariupol Local History Museum, and Mariupol State University.
During the event, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the problems faced daily by frontline and displaced museums, share their experiences, personal stories, and their own vision for the future activities of museum institutions, which even in times of war remain centers of memory, resilience, and community cohesion.
This was reported by the National Museum of Ukrainian History.
Frontline and displaced museums are forced to operate without adequate material and technical resources, exhibition space, and secure storage facilities, while at the same time rethinking their role in society. Along with the tasks of preserving and accounting for heritage, museums today work with intangible cultural heritage, memorialization of war, documentation of crimes against culture, and the search for new forms of interaction with audiences — often in a legal field that has remained virtually unchanged since Soviet times.
Panel discussions:
🔸Collections and people: what is a museum in times of full-scale war and how has its function changed?
🔸The realities of frontline and displaced museums today.
🔸How can frontline and evacuated museums continue to operate in conditions of constant risk, limited access to collections, and legislative gaps?
🔸How do the state, society, and museum workers themselves see the future of museums?
The panel discussion will take place on January 16, 2026, at the National Museum of Ukrainian History. Registration for the event is available at the following link: https://forms.gle/v9jkZ7gJ95LvdknE7