Since Russia's full-scale invasion, the region's cultural and educational institutions have been expected to reformat the focus of their activities. Theaters, galleries, and educational institutions have turned into shelters, actors in the cultural sphere have transformed into volunteer communities; a significant number of people of culture are now in hotspots "fighting their own people and things". It is symbolic that the first informal hub for addressing pertinent needs in the early days of the war in Lviv was the community of cultural managers.‍

In the third week of the war, the trend began to change - the actors of change started resuming their main activity, the development of the cultural field, which is our soft power, as well as the cultural sector of the economy.‍

In the feature, please, find a small sample of initiatives and activities in the "cultural front".‍

Experiences of cultural institutions of Lviv‍

• I Gallery resumed work and invites you to see the exhibitions and attend public lectures.
• The Lviv Municipal Arts Center encourages to create of spaces for joint work and has turned into coworking for temporarily displaced people, as well as re-started a lecture hall and exhibitions.
• Jam Factory Art Center announced a program to support the independent art and cultural community of Ukraine, "Artists in War".
• The team of the Center for Urban History has launched Fellowships for scholars in Ukraine affected by the war,  with the possibility to work on a documenting project within the institution.

Experiences of the museum sector‍

The response of the community of cultural actors resulted in the creation of new initiatives and networks:‍

• Heritage Emergency Response Initiative

The initiative distributes the “Rapid Response Manual for Museums” developed by the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity /Maidan Museum.The guidance provides concise information to museum workers who find themselves in the zone of military conflicts, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies.

• Cultural Heritage Rescue Centre
• Museum Crisis Center
• ‍During the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the "Evacuation of Cultural Heritage Collections: Instructions for the organization of works in case of emergency" developed by the International Committee Blue Shield International was also published.‍‍
• The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine developed a resource for keeping record of the destroyed or damaged cultural monuments.‍‍
• The Community of European Museum Organisations collects and streamlines initiatives designed to help preserve the Ukrainian cultural heritage: Museums support Ukraine.
• The Museum of the Warsaw Uprising convened the Committee for Assistance to Museums of Ukraine. The committee included museum directors from Poland. The main goal is to save the cultural heritage of Ukraine. The warehouse keeps being replenished.‍
• Web Archiving Initiative - Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online.‍‍

Our partners from the Cultural Strategy Institute made a summary of the activities of cultural institutions in times of war.‍

Within this area:‍

We join the initiatives focused on the protection of cultural heritage. We are striving to strengthen the museum environment, as well as invest in Ukrainian business. We have already supported the initiative of the Meta Museum to develop and manufacture boxes for the evacuation of museum collections. The next step is to multiply and scale this project among museum communities.

We are involved in the project of purchasing books for children who are temporarily staying abroad. We consider educational initiatives that develop programs and educational products.