History comes to life in digital format: Nadiia Polianska on the museum’s new project
Not so long ago, the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion won a grant from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation to implement a large-scale project called “Creating and Promoting a Digital Archive of the Stock Collections of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion.”
Today we have the opportunity to look behind the scenes of this exciting project, which transforms Lviv’s museum treasury into a digital space accessible to all, and to talk to its coordinator, Nadia Polianska.
Nadia, your initiative is truly unique, as it will not only preserve the rich religious heritage of Ukraine for posterity, but will also open up new horizons for researchers and people from all over the world. Please tell us more about the idea of creating a digital archive. What prompted the museum to undertake such a large-scale project?
Our museum, like all Ukrainian museums, has long been working on digitising its stock collections, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, this work has intensified even more. I think readers who follow museums know that in recent years many museums have already made parts of their collections available online. In many cases (like ours), this happened with the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. After all, digitising and publishing museum objects is a very complex and expensive process that museums cannot afford on their own, especially now. It requires expensive photographic equipment, as it is important to document an object in as much detail as possible, access to the cloud where these photos will be stored, and the creation of a specialised database that meets modern requirements, as well as a website where this database will be presented for everyone to see. Such a project is very important now. After 24 February 2022, our visitors will no longer have access to our collections and will not be able to see them, as all our permanent exhibitions have been dismantled and the artefacts safely hidden. And interest in our Ukrainian heritage has grown significantly, not only within Ukraine but also around the world. That’s why it’s important to provide access – even if it’s virtual – to the museum collection as part of our cultural heritage.
Tell us about the team behind this project.
Our team includes very qualified museum workers (scientists and photographers), but we have also engaged siteGist, a web agency that deals with digital humanities (its employees will create a digital archive for us), as well as Skeiron employees who perform laser scanning and create 3D models. They are working on 3D models of our most interesting archaeological sites. It is extremely important that professionals help us implement innovative products. We are pleased that there is already a circle of private initiatives around museums and monument protection that help us.
How difficult was it to prepare the project for the UCF? Have you submitted projects for grants from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation before?
If you mean writing the grant itself, then yes, of course. But since the structure of the application is quite complex and the selection process is strict, I think only 10-20% of applicants receive funding, so by the time the project starts, we already know exactly what we will do during the project to the smallest detail (because time is short) precisely because we have worked well on the text of the application itself. The Lviv Museum of the History of Religion has been applying to the Foundation since the beginning of its work, but only managed to pass the competition for the first time last year. We have successfully implemented the project “Staroskvaryava Iconostasis Museum of the XVI-XVIII centuries: digitisation of the monument, creation of an inclusive exposition.” I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit our branch in the village of Stara Skvaryava, which is now part of the Zhovkva community, where a unique iconostasis is kept in one of the oldest wooden churches, and if you do not have this opportunity now, you can see their 3D models on the museum’s page in the “Projects” section. And this year we are already working on the second project…
What kind of collections will be included in the digital archive? Are there any particularly valuable, unique items among them?
We are now planning to publish the first one thousand two hundred exhibits, and – although they are all valuable and unique to me – I am sure that everyone will find something interesting for themselves. Our oldest monument is a million years old, so as you can imagine, we have a lot to boast about. We have an extremely interesting archaeological collection – there are monuments from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, and from the territory of Ukraine. Our oldest icon dates back to the 15th century. We also have sacred works by the Baroque genius Simon Chekhovich, Ivan Fedorov’s “Bible”, Korans and Muslim theological texts, a collection of ritual Jewish silver and Buddhist paintings. The list goes on and on. What is also important is that we have a collection of anti-religious posters and other materials that are evidence of the destruction of church organisations by the communist authorities and their total control over the entire cultural life of that time.
How do you see the interaction between the digital archive and the physical museum?
I would like to think about the future, when we will be able to open a full-fledged exposition and the digital archive will become a supplement to our exhibitions. Then, revealing the theme, we will be able to supplement the exhibited monuments with virtual ones. And the photographs of the monuments that will be in the archive will allow us to examine them in more detail than in a physical showcase.
The Lviv Museum of the History of Religion is the only one of its kind in Ukraine and one of the few in the world. It houses unique memorabilia that help to highlight the ideological foundations of world religions, the history and activities of church organisations. Do you plan to cooperate with educational institutions to use your unique archive in the educational process? Perhaps now it will be more realistic, given the possible online format.
We constantly cooperate with universities and schools, but the digital archive will be an extremely convenient tool for the educational process, especially in history classes. There is a lot of talk now about uniting the history of Ukraine and world history. Sacred monuments could be a much-needed tool for drawing parallels, for example, to explain the connection between material and spiritual culture; the parallels between pagan pre-Christian beliefs throughout the Oikoumen, including the Ukrainian lands; the changes brought about by the Reformation movements in the early modern era; church missions and colonisation; the influence of churches on the formation of modern nations; and the horrors of totalitarian regimes. In fact, our monuments could be used to illustrate at least half of the lessons of a school course. But here I want to emphasise that all Ukrainian museums have interesting collections, so I recommend that educators take an active interest in their collections, especially those that are already available online.
What challenges do you see in promoting religious heritage in modern society?
Nowadays, it is natural for us to separate the state and the church. And this is wonderful. However, there is a stereotype that the care of our cultural heritage is only a state matter. And since the church and the state are separated, we have a bit of a blind spot on our religious heritage, and this is already wrong. There is also the self-restriction that believers of a particular religion or denomination should be interested only in their own, and non-believers should be interested only in the secular part of culture. Therefore, the challenge is to make the “alien” interesting, but not at the expense of excessive exoticism, for some audiences and to show the previously unknown “ours” to others. It is difficult, and we are just beginning this journey.
What are the new opportunities for museums in the digital age?
Here I will continue to answer your previous question, but from a more conservative point of view. Digital tools, such as online collections, 3D models, virtual exhibitions, and a host of other things, are meant to promote, but will never replace, museum objects themselves. After all, they are designed to prepare our visitors for a real visit to the museum, because – I know from experience – if you don’t have more information about the museum collection beforehand, a visit can be disappointing, the monuments can merge with each other, and the plethora of facts can only confuse you even more. That’s why such projects are useful, because they make it possible to classify and organise the museum collection in a clear structure – and this is one side of the coin. On the other hand, the same 3D models “move” static museum objects, make them closer, “take them out” of the showcases that previously hid them from visitors.
And in conclusion. When exactly will your project be presented to the public?
The presentation will take place in the second half of October. The day is still being finalised, but we will definitely announce it, including on our Facebook page. We invite you to subscribe to our social media pages . There we constantly publish information about our collections, as well as about interesting events: exhibitions, concerts, lectures and excursions. You are welcome to join us!
Thank you for the conversation.
The interview was conducted by Herman Goshkador