The English-Ukrainian Conservation Dictionary is a collaborative project designed to support Ukrainian conservators in accessing international conservation literature, using professional resources in English, and communicating with colleagues and institutions internationally.
The Dictionary was developed in response to a specific professional need following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A number of Ukrainian conservators who came to the UK through the Homes for Ukraine scheme continued to work in conservation studios and participate in professional development and educational programmes in English. Despite their expertise, specialised or unfamiliar terminology could make it difficult to discuss conservation processes, prepare documentation, access professional literature and participate fully in training. At the time, there was no freely available English-Ukrainian resource covering terminology commonly used in conservation practice. In response to this need, a small selection of commonly used terms was initially compiled and translated by Ukrainian conservators working in the UK. This early work was used as a case study in Supporting Decolonisation in Museums: Focus on Ukraine (page 40) which is free to download from the project partners’ websites, including ICOM UK – link here. It gradually developed into a collaborative project and, ultimately, an open-access resource hosted on the American Institute for Conservation’s (AIC) Conservation Wiki – link here.
The first stage of the project is now complete and focused on translating conservation terminology from the AIC Wiki Lexicon into Ukrainian, creating a practical English-Ukrainian terminology resource. The project was developed with the support of the British Council, the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and the International Institute for Conservation (IIC), with the participation of the Department of Techniques and Conservation of Works of Art at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv.
The team behind the project is now considering the next stage, which will focus on expanding the Dictionary with additional conservation terms and their Ukrainian definitions, with the aim of developing a more comprehensive glossary. As part of this process, they would be very interested to hear from ICOM UK members and other cultural heritage professionals with suggestions for conservation terms that would be useful to include, particularly terminology that is not currently covered by existing conservation resources.
Project team member Marharyta Khrebetrenko will be presenting a poster session about the Ukraine–UK Cultural Heritage Initiative and the English-Ukrainian Conservation Dictionary project at the ICOM-CC (ICOM Committee for Conservation) Triennial Conference in Oslo, 14-18 September 2026 – link here. ICOM UK members who are planning to attend the conference are encouraged to say hello!
For more information about the project or to suggest terminology for translation, please write to Valeriia Kravchenko, Paintings Conservator and Co-founder of the Ukraine-UK Cultural Heritage Initiative at valeriia.kravchenko.cons@gmail.com.
Maria Blyzinsky, Trustee ICOM UK, and Valeriia Kravchenko, Paintings Conservator
