Threats to Europe’s cultural heritage
Europe's cultural heritage is under constant threat - whether due to terrorist and military actions, looting or climate change. Armed conflicts exacerbate the destruction of cultural heritage, as cultural monuments and GLAM institutions - galleries, libraries, archives, and museums- often become targets. The attacks on them aim to demoralise the population or to attract international attention, while the illicit market in antiquities is often exploited for personal profit or to fund further military actions.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 is one of the most recent examples in a very long history of cultural heritage destruction. For centuries, the destruction and looting of cultural property were widely considered an acceptable and inevitable element of warfare, and disposing of ‘the spoils of war’ has been a longstanding practice among warring nations. The war in Ukraine, however, has sparked international outrage and rapidly elevated addressing the destruction of cultural heritage in the international security agenda.
Support from the Europeana Initiative
As early as February 2022, the Europeana Initiative - composed of the Europeana Foundation, Europeana Aggregators’ Forum and Europeana Network Association - expressed our unequivocal solidarity with the people of Ukraine in a joint statement. This declaration acknowledges that the work to support Ukraine’s cultural heritage sector has never been so relevant, and this has been made clear by all the messages of support from across the sector internationally. Since then, Europeana has been actively supporting different actions across Europe to assist Ukrainian colleagues working within the digital cultural heritage sector, including by supporting Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online- SUCHO and Save the Ukraine Monuments- SUM (4CH).
Besides these initiatives, the Europeana Initiative has jointly established a Supporting the digital cultural heritage of Ukraine Working Group. This is a joint Task Force open to anyone in the Europeana ecosystem who would like to volunteer their efforts to support Ukraine’s cultural heritage sector. The aim is to establish and facilitate actions that apply the Europeana’s collective capacity and capability to support the preservation and development of the Ukrainian digital cultural heritage sector.
An initiative that has arguably attracted the most public attention and gained a lot of popularity is Laptops for Ukraine. Launched by the European Commission, the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation and Digital Europe, its aim was to respond to the fundamental needs of schools, hospitals and public administrations in Ukraine's most affected war regions by collecting and delivering technical devices such as laptops, smart-phones and tablets. This helped hard-hit areas in the country to stay connected.
In June 2023, this initiative was extended to help cultural heritage institutions in Ukraine to digitally document, scan and photograph documents and objects at risk of being lost due to the war. Europeana supported this initiative by urging its large pan-European network of cultural heritage institutions to donate and take their part in preserving Ukraine’s cultural heritage through digitalisation. In September 2023, as part of the “Laptops for Ukraine” campaign, Digital Europe in collaboration with the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation and the European Commission shipped the first batch of donations. It amounted to over 1,000 ICT devices, which were distributed to teachers, students, healthcare workers, and local government offices affected by the war as well as the regions in need.
A unique collaboration in support of creativity and innovation in Ukraine were the fourth and fifth editions of the Hatathon organized in 2023 and 2024 respectively by the innovation agency Digitising Space and House of Europe with the support of the European Commission in Ukraine. The mission of these organisations is to generate innovative ideas and explore new avenues at the nexus of culture and technology. Europeana supported this initiative by establishing an award under the name Europeana Digital Heritage Nomination. In 2023, the winner of this award was the NGO ‘Memories of Ukraine’ with the project ‘Memories of the military’. Its idea is to create digital memorials for the military based on their wartime memories and knowledge. In 2024, Europeana Digital Heritage Nomination was given to ‘QIRI'M Young’ for the National Corpora of the Crimean Tatar Language project. Its goal is to create a comprehensive digital platform for preserving and developing the Crimean Tatar language.
Get involved
The above-mentioned initiatives clearly indicate the commitment of the Europeana Initiative to contribute to the preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage. The Europeana Initiative and the members of the Supporting the digital cultural heritage of Ukraine Working Group are determined to keep track of what happens in the digital cultural heritage sector to support Ukraine, to coordinate and undertake Europeana-based actions, to look for synergies with other networks and to collaborate with Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions whenever possible.
There is much work to be done, and our action is urgently needed. Do not hesitate to reach out if you want to be a part of the efforts to protect culture in a way that serves people, especially the most vulnerable ones. The next Working Group meeting is on 13 February, and you are welcome to join! Email [email protected] for more information.
Cultural heritage at risk will also be in focus at Europeana 2025, which will be held in Warsaw and online on 11-12 June 2025 during the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU - register to be the first to hear about the conference tickets.