From the 14th to the 17th of March 2011, Mykola Kushnir, the director of the Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews, took part in the international conference "Public reform of museum management and marketing". At the forum, which was organised in Kyiv by the International Renaissance Foundation, the Rinat Akhmetov Fund "Development of Ukraine" and the Ukrainian Centre for Museum Development, there were representatives of more than 100 museums from all regions of Ukraine, as well as from Poland, the United States, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Lithuania. The main focus of the conference was on questions of the condition and urgent problems of museums in Ukraine.

Representatives of the museum community exchanged their experiences on solutions for the acute problems of the functioning of museums in present times, and they had an opportunity to get practical skills in fundraising and project management. During the conference there was a round table with representatives of the legislative and executive branches of the Ukrainian authorities. In particular, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which is the central state executive authority concerned with the realisation of state policies regarding museums, was represented by the deputy minister Viktoriya Lisnycha.

The conclusions that where reached by the end of the conference were turned into suggestions to the state authorities concerning improvement of state regulation of museum activities in Ukraine, including issues regarding non-governmental museums like ours, and regarding the preservation of museum's collections.

Mykola Kushnir and Viktoria Lisnycha during a break.

Museum experts share their experience.

Participants' gathering at the end of the conference.