ICOM President, Prof. Dr Hans-Martin Hinz, attended the annual meeting of ICOM Ukraine on November 14 and 15 in Lviv at the Museum of Ethnography and Applied Arts of Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. The conference focused on the theme: 1914-2014: from the war of empires to the dialogue of cultures and gathered Ukrainian scientists, museum managers and politicians. Different themes such as The cultural heritage of the border areas: ethnicity and social responsibility or Actuality of value of war monuments for society and politics were discussed during the meeting.

In his opening speech, Prof. Dr Hinz opened discussion on the conference theme, in the year of the World War I centennial, declaring that: “looking back over times of sudden and sometimes stressful social change, it is notable how often public cultural policy has reacted by supporting museums in order to strengthen their role in enabling people to reflect on the many strands that make up the past, and to imagine a positive future. […] We can perceive in this short outline that political aspirations and the progress of museums are inevitably closely connected in the development of nation-states around the world today.” He also participated in a panel discussion on Cultural heritage: shared responsibility on the role of museums, public and governmental institutions in creating shared responsibility for cultural heritage, along with two other speakers: Dr. Volodymyr V’atrovych, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and Dr. Vasyl Rozhko, Head of the Museum Department of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

Prof. Dr Hinz was interviewed during his stay, by the Lviv Channel 2 (HTA). The entire 40-minute interview can be found here in two parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9m48OcXuYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PyNk_PZAHk