UKRAINE     2003

In 2003 the Fund continued the active program of seminars, classes and performances and consultations in Ukraine begun in 1999. Overall we spent 30 volunteer days in 3 cities, including Kiev, Kharkiv, and Lviv.

Kiev

Performances and Master Classes - March 14-22

Ken Shifrin

In March, the distinguished American trombonist, Ken Shifrin, conducted concerts and held master classes for students at the Conservatoire and at the Gliere College of Music. In addition to trio performances (piano, trombone, and vocalist), he led the Conservatoire’s 10-piece trombone choir in the premier performance of the Kiev Trombone March, a work by Ukrainian composer Alexandr Poteeken. In addition, Shifrin conducted a series of classes for younger students at these institutions.

The Institute of Jewish Studies – August 26-29

Seminar Leader: Karen Franklin

With encouragement from the U. S. Embassy in Kiev, Karen Franklin director of the Judaica Museum of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, NY, resumed a series of Fund sponsored consultations begun in 2002 with Leonid Finberg, director of the Institute of Jewish Studies in Kiev.

At the urging of Director Finberg., she returned to Kiev in August to make a presentation at the International Ukrainian Jewish History Conference and to attend a series of meetings with the Institute staff. She also consulted with the director of the Ukrainian National Gallery to obtain an update on the Jewish Heritage Museum planned for Babi Yar.

Her presentation "Researching Ukrainian Jewish Families in the United States” was designed to introduce Jewish scholars and historians from as far away as Austria, Israel and Japan as well as from Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine, to the new internet and archival resources becoming available in the United States.

The sixty museum and archive directors and historians were impressed by the research opportunities and the availability of indexed sites online, particularly the New York Times Index, and Proquest, an outstanding resource for historical research.

Future Activities:

Working with Director Finberg and others at the institute Ms. Franklin is helping arrange for the loan of Jewish artifacts from this region for display in the United States and elsewhere.

Kharkiv

Cultural Management Seminar - Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2003

Seminar leaders: Paul Elicker and Rena Zurofsky

With the encouragement and financial support from the Embassy, The Fund conducted a five-day seminar on the management of cultural institutions. The participants here were largely representatives from performing arts institutions.

The first major session was devoted to Mission Statements. Only a small minority of the participants’ own organizations had mission statements at the time but the group seemed to grasp the concept very well. “Do it yourself” Market Research concepts and Appealing to New Audiences were covered on the second day and the third and fourth days were devoted to the Philosophy and Principles of Strategic Planning and the Principles and Arithmetic of Long Range Planning. Participants were asked to consider the following questions in light of the seminars.

A typical budget format was presented and a distinction was made between shorter term budgeting and long range planning. The final day was devoted to fund-raising. “Managing for Money”, The Fund’s management text now translated into several languages, including Ukrainian, was distributed to the participants and widely used throughout the seminar.

Follow-up

No follow-up beyond individual e-mail and other contacts in envisioned for Kharkiv.

Kiev

The Restoration Center – Oct. 3, 2003

Consultants: Rena Zurofsky, Paul Elicker

Olha Krekoten, Rena Zurofsky and Paul Elicker visited Mrs. Strelinikova, Executive Director of the National Restoration Center in Kiev, Ukraine. This meeting was follow up on an earlier meeting by Jillian Poole. Its purpose was to determine more precisely whether the needs of the Restoration Center are such that they could be assisted by The Fund.

The National Restoration Center is a government-owned facility with the technical expertise to restore damaged or deteriorated works of art, specifically paintings, prints, and manuscripts. It is headquartered in a sprawling, antiquated and cramped facility, and has locations in five different locations in Kiev and smaller branches in other Ukrainian cities.

Mrs. Strelinikova outlined as her most immediate problem the procuring of requisite chemicals from Ukraine and abroad and also processing equipment. The state of their equipment is such that, supplemented by manual processing, they can perform most rehabilitation tasks. The challenge is not so much that they don’t possess the required equipment, but that the equipment they have is faulty, outdated and some inoperative. Procuring of required equipment was easier in prior Soviet days and is now successively tightening each year. Securing the equipment has always been supplemented by donations, often in kind, from private sources.

Mrs. Strelinikova is quite familiar with grant procedures. Nevertheless, Rena Zurovsky emphasized to her very strongly that she must specify with precision to any probable donor exactly what kind of materials and equipment and at what probable value her “want list” contains. This list could then be circulated through ICOM and AAM and sent to institutions that are likely to be well enough funded to do regular equipment upgrades. Such museums might be willing to donate their old equipment. Ms. Zurofsky offered to followed up and assist with this initiative, but Mrs. Strelinkova did not respond with any request that we do so.

Future:

This is a capable and worthwhile institution to keep in touch with. Contact is best maintained through US Embassy Cultural staff. Other than assistance with a review of operating supplies and equipment needs which we offered, there may not be a way The Fund can be of meaningful assistance.

Lviv

Seminar on Planning and Design of Exhibition October 13-16, 2003

Seminar leaders: Lyndel King and Guillermo Barrios

Lyndel King, Director and Chief Curator, Weisman Art Museum, at the University of Minnesota, and Guillermo Barrios, Architect, Professor and Chairman of the Museum Studies Program, at the Central University of Venezuela, conducted the seminar. They were hosted by Zenobiy Mazurik, of the Lviv Gallery of Art, where he is in charge of Development which includes Public Relations and fundraising.

He noted that his position was another direct result of The Fund’s seminar in 2000. Many of the museums and cultural institutions in the area are now actively seeking alternative sources of funds. At the Lviv Gallery, he has created a new marketing division specifically for that purpose.

The seminar was attended by twenty eight (28) participants from seventeen museums from Lviv and its surroundings; including Kolomyia, Odessa and Kiev, four of the participants had direct involvement in the area of exhibits design in their museums. The rest of the participants were directors, curators, conservators and educators. Most of the museums represented in the seminar dealt with history issues: museums of public figures in different areas (music, art, politics, science); on city, regional or national history or even, on History of Religion, a type of museum common in most major Ukrainian cities

The program was refined via several e-mails between The Fund leaders and our hosts and the outcome of this process was sent to Ukraine some weeks in advance for promotion and translation purposes. The program included four major topics that were to be sequentially developed in each of the sessions of the Seminar. The main seminar goal was to link the contents of museums to the local museum experience and to the needs and requirements of that museum’s audience.

During the first session, Lyndel King made a presentation on the Weisman Museum, related to different topics of interest for the seminar, including its operation with relation to the University of Minnesota framework, collection, structure, staff, and its interesting building, designed by architect Frank O. Gehry. Guillermo Barrios then made a conceptual presentation about new trends, values and principles that affect the museum work today, in the context of the so-called new museology.

After a discussion on these presentations, the participants divided into work groups and made a first break out exercise in which they selected five aspects of Lviv that they would like to highlight as an exploration of feasible exhibition subjects.

The second session was devoted to “Creating Successful Exhibition Projects”. The Fund team stressed the idea of exhibition as essentially a product of a team’s effort. Lyndel King highlighted some specific projects to illustrate how a concept could be, generated by the museum curatorial staff, or brought to the museum by independent curators. She compared this conventional way of planning exhibitions with a new trend, in which artists are invited to “play” with the museum collections and freely create an exhibition, a new vision. This allowed the confrontation of concepts like “resonance” and ‘wonder”, among others that are being currently discussed in the field of museum exhibitions. Guillermo Barrios discussed the case of a small history museum in Caracas, in whose re-launch he is currently working as part of an interdisciplinary team. He stressed the exhibition approaches they were favoring: temporary and traveling exhibitions at the axis, in order to make connection with the cultural environment and embrace new audiences. The issues of continuous change as an essential characteristic of the museum institution, and of small-scale/big-impact shows were discussed with particular interest.

The second break out exercise for the participants groups called for the selection of a subject and the building of an exhibition proposal. The diversity of approaches and viewpoints reflected in the outcome of the assignment motivated a rich discussion on the issue of object-centered and concept-centered exhibitions.

The third session, “Mise in Scène: Staging Ideas”, was devoted to the discussion about elements and principles of exhibition design. Lyndel King showed a selection of the Weisman Museum exhibition to illustrate the various conceptual, aesthetical and technical issues involved in the design of museum shows, including the use of space: walls and panels, bases and platforms; lighting and color; accents and effects. In the same direction, Guillermo Barrios went through a series of exhibitions he has designed for different museums in Caracas. These cases were useful to focus discussion on two exhibition design trends: “exclusionism” and “inclusionism”, which mark the different approaches to the presentation of exhibition objects. Lyndel King then discussed the financial aspects of exhibitions. The participants were very sensitive to this issue in light of the local reality, resources and limitations.

The third and last assignment consisted of an observation visit to an exhibition at a local museum and the presentation of an analytical report to the Seminar. An “items to be observed” checklist, designed by King, was provided to the participants. Once again, the presentations resulted in an ample spectrum of choices and viewpoints, which enriched the discussion.

The fourth session of the Seminar devoted to “Promoting and Marketing the Exhibition” had three parts. The first allowed for the discussion of the issue of audiences research, for which the team used the presentation designed by Bob Workman of the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas. The discussion centered on the concept of edutainment and included discussions of merchandising, advertising and marketing as applied to the museum, as well as other issues linked to the exhibition context and follow-up. The second segment related to an evaluation and a summation of the Seminar, with general questions and comments about its development. As a group, the participants set up the main ideas that were arisen and the main “takeaways” the experience had provided.

Future

One of the most interesting and important outcomes of the Seminar, was a proposal that The Fund hold another seminar in Kolomyia (Carpathian region) next year on the subject of community museums. These are a new type of museum that has developed from grass-roots initiatives, related to the traditional base of the region in which they stand. For instance, in the Ivan Franko region there is a trend toward creating museums in some artisans’ houses. In Kolomyia there is a recently created museum about Easter Eggs, which has a very strong tradition in the area. Even their building is egg shape. Additional discussions will have to be held to consider the structure of such a seminar, but one thought would be to make it a traveling seminar, with sessions in different locations. This could provide a significant new way of sharing information with regional institutions. Mr. Mazurik’s endorsement of the seminar in the following quote is encouraging to all of The Fund professionals who give their time and expertise to create and lead these seminars.

Other Ukraine Projects for 2004

In 2004 The Fund has been invited to undertake a seminar in Kiev for a variety of cultural organizations. Chairman Paul Elicker and Carol Bogash will probably spearhead this activity.