Press release: International closing conference
PRESS RELEASE
Szentendre, November 27, 2025 – In the Hungarian Open Air Museum, a project unprecedented in Hungarian museum life has been implemented in recent months, with the professional coordination of the Museum Education and Methodology Centre (MOKK) and the expertise of the Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The international closing conference, held on November 27, 2025, was honoured with the presence of Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO.
Magdolna Nagy, Gábor Soós, Eszter Csonka-Takács and Ernesto Ottone R. Photo: Balázs Bánáti
The primary objective of the project, launched on September 26, 2024, was to assist displaced persons from Ukraine arriving in Hungary due to the war conflict in learning about and preserving their intangible cultural heritage. It also provided methodological assistance to domestic museum professionals in working with special target groups, enabling them to support Ukrainian displaced persons inclusively as they preserve their identity and continue their culture.
The project and the conference exemplify Hungary's support for Ukrainian displaced persons through international cooperation to preserve their culture, thereby promoting their social integration and cultural diversity, as well as the broader role of heritage and culture in dialogue and peace.
Five Hungarian museums – the Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc, the Hungarian Circus Arts Museum, Library and Archives, the Óbuda Museum, the Sóstó Museum Village, and the Székesfehérvár Diocesan Museum – implemented pilot projects involving more than 270 Ukrainian stakeholders, which can be adapted for other museums. The pilot projects were related to iconic Ukrainian heritage elements that are also on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, such as the Cossack’s songs of Dnipropetrovsk Region, the Örnek – the traditional symbols of the Crimean Tatars, Pysanka – Ukrainian tradition and art of decorating eggs, or the culture of Borscht Soup cooking that was added to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Photo: Balázs Bánáti
After Zsolt Sári, PhD, Deputy Director-General of the Hungarian Open Air Museum, welcomed the Hungarian, Ukrainian, Slovak, and Romanian museum professionals present, the participants were able to listen to the welcoming speech of Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO, who emphasized that the organization actively participates in the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. After that, Gábor Soós, PhD, Secretary-General of the Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO, gave a presentation on the role of heritage in preserving and restoring peace, followed by Magdolna Nagy, director of MOKK, who presented the background, implementation, and results of the project. In her presentation, she also touched on the publication Finding Home in the Museum, the 34th volume of the Museum Compass series, which provides assistance to the museum profession in the practical application of project results.
Photo: Balázs Bánáti
After that, the five implemented Hungarian museum pilot projects were put in the spotlight: the museum professionals from Miskolc, Székesfehérvár, Nyíregyháza and Budapest who developed and realized them reported on their experiences during the implementation, and then the Ukrainian participants and partners involved in the pilot projects also spoke: including Oleksandr Butsenko, director of the Ukrainian “Democracy through Culture” Development Centre.
In the afternoon programme, international speakers presented their projects involving Ukrainian displaced persons. The experiences of the Slovakian “To Get Together” programme were reported by a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences and Ganna Shvachka, head of the “Ukraine-Slovakia SOS” charity fund and SME Spolu Civic Association, while Ioana Repciuc Baskerville, associate professor at the Department of Ethnography of the Romanian Academy, and Olena Zinkevych, head of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Romania’s Ukraine Team, presented a Romanian initiative.
Ganna Shvachka Photo: Balázs Bánáti Ioana Repciuc Baskerville Photo: Balázs Bánáti
In the final part of the programme after the closing remarks by Eszter Csonka-Takács, PhD, director of the Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Hungarian Open Air Museum, Mihajlo Vihula, a Ukrainian guitarist living in Miskolc, Anastaziia Ivanova, a dancer who fled from Ukraine, and the dance students of the ReDance Ukraine pilot project performed.
Mihajlo Vihula Photo: Balázs Bánáti Anastaziia Ivanova
Dance students of the ReDance Ukraine pilot project Photo: Balázs Bánáti
For more information:
https://mokk.skanzen.hu/20251127project-description
Gabi Kajári
Project Manager, Communications Associate
Hungarian Open Air Museum – Museum Education and Methodology Center
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