Museum Lifelines: Directors on the Frontline

Join us for an illuminating live virtual symposium featuring a panel of five museum directors from Ukraine’s frontline cities whose extraordinary leadership became crucial for the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage during the full-scale Russian invasion.

Representing institutions across the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions, these directors executed emergency evacuations, rebuilt destroyed museums, created new cultural hubs, and sustained community engagement despite displacement, bombardments, and personal loss. These women will discuss frontline cultural stewardship and emergency collections care at a time when cultural sites across Ukraine remain under threat.

Organized by the Ukrainian Museum in New York in partnership with the Association of Ukrainian Museums (Kyiv), this inaugural symposium is part of the Ukrainian Museum’s SAFE program. The featured speakers were acknowledged in late 2025 with individual SAFE fellowships. Their moral clarity and stamina embody the mission of the Ukrainian Museum’s SAFE program:  to protect cultural workers, safeguard museum collections, and affirm the future of Ukrainian heritage in times of profound risk.

This event is free and open to the public. Please register to receive a link via email to join the event on Zoom. The program is in Ukrainian with English translation. If the guest speakers are impacted due to the ongoing war, this event will be rescheduled to the following day, Monday, February 16, at 1 pm.