On August 11, memorial service for Odesa art museum director Oleksandr Roitburd to take place: we recollect what changed in the museum in 4 years

Богдан Петришин

On August 11, from 10:00 to 12:00, a farewell ceremony for the museum's director Oleksandr Roitburd will take place in the courtyard of the Odesa Art Gallery. At 13:00, there will be a burial in the Jewish cemetery.

The team of Odesa Art Museum decided to share what Oleksandr Roitburd managed to do for Odesa Art for the last four years. Of course, it's impossible to fit everything in one post. Therefore, the main ones are:

• First and foremost, he agreed to take part in the competition for the position of museum director and head of the Odesa Art Museum. He knew that he would have to overcome considerable resistance, but the desire to revive the museum and give Odesa a modern cultural space was stronger.
• He implemented three large-scale projects dedicated to certain periods of art: "Special Fund. Executed Art," "Exhumation. Socialist Realism from Odesa Art Collection" and "Strict and Stylish."
• Also in recent years, the Odesa Art Museum hosted exhibitions by Vlada Ralko, Volodymyr Budnikov, Mikhail Rev, Maria Kulikovska, Viktor Maryniuk, Boris Lurie, Konstantin Somov, Volodymyr Naumets, Ihor Gusiev, Yurii Syvyryn, Mykhailo Zhuk from the collection of Taras Maksimiuk, Mykola Hlushchenko, APL 315, Ihor Haidai, Anna Mironova, Volodymyr Melnychenko and Ada Rybachuk.
• Roitburd, like no other, was able to interest people in the museum and unite them around it. This is how our patronage community "Club Marazli," to which Roitburd belonged, came together; this is how the largest rallies in support of the museum in the history of Odesa gathered.
• The museum walls have changed beyond recognition, sometimes literally: from the emergency ceiling of the Serebriakivskyi Hall, we have come to new halls painted with the same paint as the walls of the Louvre.
• In 3 years, the museum collection has been replenished with almost 600 new works, more than in the previous three decades.
• Since 2017, the museum has restored 33 works based on the National Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine. Today we have our own restoration workshops with professional restorers.
• With the active participation and assistance of Roitburd, new museum publications were published, dedicated to the archive and the formation of the collection of the Odesa Art; exhibition catalogs.
• Under the new director, separate departments of communications and events appeared in Odesa Art for the first time. This allowed to bring the museum service and filling to a fundamentally new level. A separate direction of work with children was formed.
• Roitburd's greatest gift to Odessa art museum and the city was a new exhibition of contemporary art #FromTwentyTwenty on the second floor. A gift in the literal sense: it consists of more than half of the gifts from his own collection, as well as gifts from artists and collectors who supported Roitburd's desire to raise the museum to the national level.
• From the very beginning, Roitburd wanted to make Odesa Art not only a place of leisure but also a point of communication and unity of the Ukrainian artistic community. The last project he managed to complete at the museum was the OFAM WALL competition, where 132 artists from all over the country competed for the opportunity to create work for the museum exhibition.
• One of the main tasks Roitburd considered obtaining the Odesa art museum's artistic status as the national. We will do everything necessary to complete the work he has begun in this direction.

"Oleksandr Roitburd didn't like to be called a "director." And he really was and remains much more than just a director for Odesa Art. He gave the museum a new life, which can not be measured only by the number of tickets sold and new paintings in the exhibition. It was an honor and a great joy to work with Oleksander Roitburd. Every one of us will always remember these four years, so bright and rich, so unfairly short. Thank you for everything. We will miss you," the Odesa Art team said.

Illustration by Oleksandr Grekhov especially for Rubryka in the #SolutionCreators series