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This extraordinarily successful enterprise was coordinated by Ihor Poshyvailo of the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv and Olha Krekoten of the American Embassy in Kyiv, and hosted by the Opishne Pottery Museum. Over 25 museum professionals from throughout the Ukraine attended the seminar, their ranks were swelled by the 100 staff members from the Opishne Pottery Museum, many of whom attended the sessions regularly.
The participants surprised us all with an enthusiasm and creativity which enabled a lively interplay within the group and among the seminar coordinators. They expressed a great interest in American museums and a determination to implement what they had learned to make change in their institutions. This positive attitude infused the sessions and set up a wonderful atmosphere.
Upon our weekend arrival in Kyiv, Aldona and Karen began with a tour of the local culture. Aldona especially enjoyed the tour of the Treasures of the City with its rich documentation of local folklore. Karen visited a recently restored synagogue and community center in which the Institute of Jewish Studies, with whom she had worked on two earlier visits, had installed an exhibition. The Institute has been successful in finding funding sources to enable a staff of 20 to develop exhibitions, collections, and publications that are world-class.
On Monday we drove to Opishne, a five-hour adventure, with the local roads of questionable quality. We were thrilled to be joined by Olha Krekoten and Ihor Poshyvailo.
OPISHNE POTTERY MUSEUM
Our surprise continued when we visited the Opishne Pottery Museum where we were enthusiastically greeted by the museum staff, and treated to a guided tour of the lovely ceramic sculpture garden, the restoration and research laboratories, and the open-storage exhibition rooms. Expert potters gave demonstrations, and created elegant clay vessels on a foot-powered wheel. The museum was founded by Oles Poshyvailo, whose grandparents, expert potters of the area, inspired the vision to capture this important local history and culture.
THE SEMINAR
The spirit in this group could be felt in every team project, and the interest in learning was palpable. The participants welcomed our humor and appreciated our efforts to get to know them. Though we knew that resources were extremely limited (the employees of the Pottery Museum averaged a salary of $100/month) not once the participants request fundraising advice; rather, they took pride in their accomplishments and their creativity, were interested in learning about American museums, and were anxious to improve their own performance.
We were truly thrilled to work together with Ihor and Oles to develop strategies to present American museum concepts and develop ways to implement them into museum practice in the Ukraine, and to give general information of interest about American museums and ICOM which could be of use to these professionals. This was really a two-part program, and we alternated between presentations & workshops, and general sessions on American museum practices. Both types of sessions were of great interest to the group.
The professionals present represented areas of art, ceramic, folk, ethnography, mainly Ukrainian, some European, house, and history museums.
WHY MUSEUMS
To challenge the group, and discover their attitudes towards their profession, Aldona posed the question, “why museums?” Why do museums keep on thriving even if they cost money, why the people in the room are willing to take jobs that pay less than in business? This led to a remarkably lively discussion that revealed intense passion about museums on the part of the participants, as well as deep devotion to their jobs.
The responses to “why museums” included: to conduct research, inspire wonder, educate children, provide models for the future, connect to the past, make the world better, help people understand their place in the world, present the history of art, contribute to personal development, stimulate understanding between nations, preserve national identity, foster communication, and demonstrate the interconnections between the natural and cultural environments. One participant stated that “Museums preserve material culture but produce spiritual culture.” And, in answer to why they work at museums, one person simply stated, “Museums are my sickness.”
MISSION STATEMENT
The remainder of the day was devoted to the concept of mission statements and the group broke up into three groups assigned to crafting a mission statement for the Opishne museum. They came up with an interesting range of ideas which were later synthesized into a single mission statement for the museum by the participants, clearly demonstrating both great ability of the group and interest in the process. The participants also developed their own museums’ mission statements.
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Perhaps the most popular program of the Seminar was the Audience development practicum, an extension of the “Mission Statement” exercise.
We organized the group into four circles, and they selected their intended audiences out of a pot. The “museums” and groups were:
Kyiv Rock and Roll Museum - Yuschenko fan club
Health and Science Museum of Lviv – smokers anonymous
Impressionism Museum – color blind people
Hunting Museum – vegetarians of the northwest Ukraine
Opishne Home for Aged Potters Museum – Poltava kindergarten class
Pinball and video game hall of fame Museum – senior citizens
Pottery Museum – blind people
Olympic Champion Museum – wheelchair bound people
Museum of Church History – society for Aetheism
Freud Museum – outing of local psych ward hospital
The responses were outstanding and creative, and we would like to share one of them in this report: The Carpathian Museum of Hunting focused on fish for their vegetarian group. Activities include a trip to a river, fishing from a wooden boat made in ancient style, and a fish-cooking cooking contest with a professional cook.
This project was unquestionably the most fun the group had during the entire seminar.
PLANNING AND FUND RAISING
This session moved from mission and programs, to a plan. We introduced basic fundraising techniques. The participants divided into groups to prepare plans for their museums, and Karen and Aldona became the potential funders, dressed in traditional Ukrainian costumes. However, the participants actually judged the group presentations.
AMERICAN MUSEUM TOPICS
Among the many topics covered over the course of the Seminar, Karen and Aldona presented information about the AAM, regional associations, special interest associations, and the value of those organizations for the museum professionals. The questions addressed volunteers, accreditation, annual reports & business plans, financing and how to establish an association. We showed Education web sites from MOMA and the Metropolitan, spoke of visitor services, and deaccessioning. We described the organizations of museums – public, university, private boards. We gave information on ICOM and its web site.
LOCAL HOSPITALITY In addition to visiting local art and ethnography museums of Poltava, an evening pottery festival and banquet, covered by Ukrainian national television at a satellite Opishne pottery museum (home of a local potter) was the highlight of one evening. Karen and Aldona created their own clay whistles and pots. We were treated also to local specialties.
Contributing elements to the success of this seminar were clearly the work of the host museum, the Opishne Pottery Museum, which prepared and planned many details of the program, including presenting each participant with a book of photographs of the seminar on the last day. Also important was the understanding of the issues by our host, Ihor Poshyvailo, who demonstrated extraordinary knowledge of American and international museum issues, and sensitivity to our needs as well, and the outstanding planning by Olha Krekoten, of the American Embassy. The participants were grateful to the Fund for its leadership in making the Seminar available to them, and expressed interest in future opportunities for learning. {jcomments on}