Małgorzata Ławrowska - von Thadden, Founder and CEO of Fundacja OBMIN, today a large network of museums of all sorts and from all over Ukraine (currently 148 museums). OBMIN supports museums with specified aid and concentrates on mid- and long term cooperation: building networks inside Ukraine and on international level, providing discussion and training groups and serving as a platform where museums have their own voice, e. g. with proposals for international Ukraine Recovery Conferences. Previously Ławrowska - von Thadden was Deputy Director in Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art, spokeswoman for the Marshall of the Polish Sejm, Co-Director of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, and head of the Culture Department of the Polish Embassy, Berlin.
Over more than 2 years OBMIN has intensively discussed with directors and employees in meanwhile about 150 museums all over Ukraine about their concrete needs - short term, mid term and long term - and provided practical solutions to many of them. One topic sticks out: Museums need more and stronger international ties, to learn from museums outside of Ukraine, to share own experiences from which others can learn and also to be assured that people outside Ukraine really care. Museums outside of Ukraine, in particular in Poland and in other countries having gone through the challenging transformation after the collapse of the Soviet empire, well understand the transformation needs of Ukrainian museums - not only because of the current war by Russia. This transformation is an important contribution to build a prosperous, democratic Ukraine with a strong civil society as museums play a crucial role in organizing public spaces to reflect upon the question what Ukraine wants to remain and become. OBMIN can help to initiate such international cooperation and match the right partners.
Emigration Museum in Gdynia
ul. Polska 1
81-339 Gdynia
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