Ukraine’s state museum NAMU becomes a hot spot for youth thanks to Banda Agency

Kyivans are rarely surprised by the graffiti painted on the capital’s buildings. But at the end of February, strange quotes appeared on the walls of Kyiv’s most popular venues like the Closer nightclub or the Kyiv Food Market.

“Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ should be displayed with his ear,” read one message. Outraged people started complaining.

But it wasn’t vandalism. The graffiti was part of an advertising campaign created by the Ukrainian advertising agency Banda to promote a new exhibition at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, or NAMU.

Dedicated to the artwork of renowned Lviv artist Myroslav Yagoda (1957–2018), the exhibition features over 60 of his paintings and graphics. It runs through April 12.

Yagoda, known for bright and sometimes shocking paintings, had schizophrenia, which influenced his artworks’ highly unusual names. “The artist should put a question mark,” read another graffiti message.

Banda Agency created the campaign in which, instead of paintings, people would see only the artworks’ names or descriptions. The paintings “are very psychedelic, unusual and sometimes even frightening,” says Roman Gurbanov, a copywriter at Banda Agency. “We didn’t want to give any spoilers of the exhibition to the audience.”

Banda also used temporary paint for the graffiti, so there would be no harm done to the city.

On Feb. 23, the day after the exhibition’s opening, NAMU gathered over 1,200 visitors, hundreds more than usual. “It’s not every day that the state museum promotes its new exhibitions with graffiti,” says Olha Balashova, deputy head of NAMU’s development.

The new campaign is part of NAMU’s bigger changes launched since 2017.

Rich history

NAMU, Kyiv’s oldest museum, was opened in 1899. Initially, it was a private museum of antiques and arts, but became state-owned in 1919. Some five years later, it was named after the iconic Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861).

After World War II, when all of modern Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the museum featured works of Russian artists and was called the “State Museum of Western European Art.” However, it again returned to Ukrainian art in 1944.

Then, in 1994, three years after Ukraine gained independence, the National Art Museum of Ukraine finally appeared.

Since then, the museum has started promoting Ukrainian art and culture and has become home to nearly 44,000 artworks by renowned Ukrainian artists.

“This is the most representative collection of Ukrainian art in the world,” Balashova says.

She said Soviet museums mainly spread propaganda, creating stereotypes about museums that linger in Ukraine to this day.

Balashova says Kyiv’s creative youth has rarely attended its exhibitions, preferring European art to Ukrainian. “We try to change this attitude,” Balashova says.

Winds of change

Kyiv citizens often refer to NAMU as “the building with the lions.” Located at Kyiv’s central Hrushevskoho Street, NAMU greets its visitors with the sculptures of two giant lions on its sides. It is a dark grey building with columns and huge wooden doors.

And it didn’t undergo any reconstruction for years.

But in summer 2018, the reconstruction of its outdoor facade finally started, at a cost of nearly Hr 70 million from the Ukrainian government. It is still ongoing.

According to Balashova, it is the first major reconstruction of the museum in nearly 70 years. The state money, however, is not enough. To renovate the lobby inside the museum, its staff had to raise money by themselves. NAMU aimed to raise Hr 710,000 and eventually succeeded.

“It is impossible to talk about any changes and a new audience when people come to the museum and simply do not feel comfortable there,” Balashova says.

The museum dropped the Soviet look in the lobby and transformed itself into a stylish and modern place in other areas. Now the lobby features light blue walls, white sculptures, bright blue tables and wardrobes.

“We go beyond the usual for museums in Ukraine,” Balashova says.

NAMU was closed for more than six months during the renovation. But Balashova says it was worth the time and money spent.

Then, in March 2018, NAMU launched a new and popular retrospective exhibition of clothing by French brand Chloé called “Chloé Couture.” It gathered thousands of Ukrainians who came not only for the exhibition but also to rediscover the museum.

“We realized that a line of people in front of the museum is possible even on a weekday morning,” Balashova says.

New identity, new NAMU

It took NAMU around three years to become a highly popular place for Ukrainian youth.

In 2017, the museum asked Banda Agency to create a new identity and an advertising campaign that would help them to attract this new audience.
The goal for the new identity was to combine three core principles for NAMU: Ukrainian, artistic and modern.

The first options proposed by Banda failed for NAMU. But as soon as NAMU invited Banda’s employees to spend some time at its premises and study its art collections, their perception of the museum changed.

In 2018, after Banda created the new identity for the museum, the National Art Museum of Ukraine became NAMU. They created a new logo to replace the old one, which was written in Ukrainian with a picture of the museum on it. Now, NAMU is written in a unique font that combines seven ancient Ukrainian types of writing. The museum’s logo has become minimalistic and modern, more attractive for youth. Banda also created branded posters, T-shirts, caps and socks.

The campaign became a sensation not only for its creative design and new logo, but also for its price. The museum paid a token amount for the campaign — only Hr 1,000 ($40). “They did that almost for free,” Balashova says.

Banda tries to do several free projects a year to develop design and culture in Ukraine.

“It was a challenging project,” Gurbanov says. “NAMU is like the main museum of Ukraine, so we wanted to create an amazing, large-scale project for it.”

Along with the new identity, NAMU’s communication changed as well.

Now the museum has a Facebook profile and an Instagram following of more than 10,000 people and nearly 300 pictures and videos of and about Ukrainian art.

In 2018, NAMU also launched a special audio guide in which some Ukrainian celebrities — including singers Tina Karol and Monatik and even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — voiced descriptions of some of the paintings.

Although it is now available in Ukrainian only, the museum promises to translate the guide into English soon.

And its new exhibition of Yagoda artworks has become a sensation. The artist is mainly known in western Ukraine, where he was born. But NAMU wanted Kyiv citizens to discover his neo-expressionism paintings.

“We try to work with unspoken, inconvenient and not fully explored topics in the history of art,” says Tetiana Zhmurko, the exhibition’s curator.

“We wanted to keep up to date, deliver socially important messages and attract a new audience but still, preserve our identity as an art museum. And we did it,” Balashova says. “The museum has finally come to life.”