Ukraine, Lviv contemporary art museum turns into center for displaced people

A museum in Lviv, Ukraine, the Lviv Art Center, is temporarily becoming a reception center for evacuees and refugees arriving from the cities where the fighting is taking place these hours, and is also providing psychological support to anyone who needs it. The museum (in Ukrainian L’vivskyj Municipal’nyi Mistec’kyj Centr) was opened in 2020 by the city administration as a venue for contemporary art projects, in a late 19th-century building, and is equipped with a library, reading rooms, a bookshop, and a cafeteria.

“The Lviv Art Center,” the museum wrote in a post on Instagram, “has been transformed into a temporary reception center for internally displaced persons and all those in need of psychological comfort. We will work from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day as long as available. We have cookies, tea, peace, cats and Alterkava [a brand of coffee, ed.] We will try to provide you with the most qualified information so that you will not feel abandoned in Lviv. The important thing is not to forget that we all need to keep calm and love each other for part of your day.” The museum then offers toys and pastimes for children as well as board games for everyone so that time can be passed better, as much as possible in such a dramatic situation.

The museum has also made itself available to find evacuees places to stay overnight in Lviv, a city an hour’s drive from the Polish border, so far marginally touched by the war and where the headquarters of several embassies that have left the capital Kiev have relocated. One needs to register (on social channels the Lviv Art Center is circulating email addresses and useful numbers) and the museum will take up the request.

Still, the museum has published a “psychological guide” for parents who need to provide support to children: among the points listed by the museum are finding a place and a form to relieve stress (“during an emergency a lot of aggression builds up, which can be released in the form of tears or screaming,” explains the Lviv Art Center: “this is perfectly normal! But make sure these emotions are not released to the child”), invite the child to release his emotions by controlling his stress, do not forbid a stressed child to run or cry (“all refugees now are victims, this is normal. The only way out of this state psychologically is active and productive aggression. Children still cannot control their aggression and energy. You can help your child direct it in a safe direction.”), speak honestly to children. Also published is a brief guide for adults: avoid trying to artificially cheer yourself up (“it’s like forcing a person to run a marathon right after an accident: treat your condition with respect and compassion”), give yourself time when you are no longer in the war zones, ask for help, release accumulated cortisol.

Finally, the invitation is to return to Lviv when the war ends to get to know the museum in a more relaxed way.

Ukraine, Lviv contemporary art museum turns into center for displaced people

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