The agreement, set for an initial period of five years, builds on the Horniman’s exhibition Qalqans: Protecting Crimean Tatar Heritage for which colleagues at the Khanenko Museum introduced us to artist Rustem Skybin.
Under the twinning arrangement, we have already put our Ukrainian colleagues in touch with key contacts to support their Africa: Direct exhibition, while they will be helping us to better catalogue around 50 objects in our collection that are associated with Ukraine.
The new twinning agreement is part of the cultural strand of the Government’s 100 Years Partnership with Ukraine.
This is the first time the Horniman has twinned with a cultural organisation overseas – but our ambition is to have a series of similar partnerships, in line with our global collections and existing international relationships.
Qalqans: Protecting Crimean Tatar Heritage ran at the Horniman until 8 March 2026.
The Africa: Direct exhibition was at the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv until 11 January 2026.
Lead image: Photo by Ada Khrol
