The Glasgow School of Art and Lviv Academy of Arts awarded joint-funding for conservation of archives in Ukraine

March 29, 2023
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The
Glasgow School of Art and Lviv Academy of Arts awarded joint-funding for
conservation of archives in Ukraine

The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and
the Lviv National Academy of Arts (LNAA) have been awarded six-figure funding
by Universities UK (UUK) as part of its ‘UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative’.

The grant totals £117,307.27 and will
be used by the GSA to provide a training and mentorship package for archive
staff at LNAA to digitalise their archive and collection, which is at
significant risk from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Dr Taras
Lesiv, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Research, said: “Currently our
archive and collection is entirely paper and object based. It is therefore at
risk. Its digitalisation is urgent and wouldn’t be possible without this
funding from UUK and collaboration with the GSA.

The project will allow us to digitally conserve our valuable archive and
collection, and build capacity for future research that’ll draw on this
material.”

Professor Sarah Smith, Head of Research at The Glasgow School of Art,
said: “We have been twinned with LNAA since October 2022 and it is tremendous
that our hard work since then has been recognised by this grant from UUK. It will
allow us to draw upon our recent, extensive experience in archival conservation
and recovery, following the Mackintosh Building fires in 2014 and 2018.

While war and fires are not comparable in either scale or impact, they
each threaten valuable history and heritage, and the digital conservation
undertaken at the GSA since 2014 has direct relevance to the current
vulnerability of LNAA’s archive and collection.”

Ends

Notes to editors

  • Universities UK (UUK) has been awarded funding by Research England, on behalf of UK
    Research and Innovation (UKRI)    , to deliver the UK-Ukraine R&I
    twinning grants scheme    . The scheme supports a programme of competitive
    grants administered by UUK available to UK universities to use in the
    context of the     UK-Ukraine University Twinning Initiative by targeting programmes of work which will
    support delivery of the institutions’ strategic objectives as they relate
    to research and innovation. The funding allows institutions to scale up
    and sustain their commitment to supporting their Ukrainian partners.

 

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