Ukrainian Museum in New York Appoints Peter Doroshenko as New Director

The Ukrainian Museum in New York announced Friday that Peter Doroshenko will be its new director.

Prior to his appointment at the Ukrainian Museum, Doroshenko served as the director of the Dallas Contemporary, a contemporary art museum in Dallas, Texas, for 11 years. Doroshenko has also served as director at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in the United Kingdom, the Institute of Visual Arts in Milwuakee, and the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Belgium.

Doroshenko also served as the founding president of the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, Ukraine, a private art museum founded in 2006 by Ukrainian-born billionaire Victor Pinchuk to showcase contemporary Ukrainian artists. Pinchuk, the second wealthiest person in Ukraine, appeared on ARTnews list of Top 200 Collectors from 2008 to 2015. The Pinchuk Art Center, which closed shortly after the Russian invasion in March, reopened in July with an exhibition of photographs documenting the war.

“With my steadfast commitment to the Ukrainian art scene since 1993, I have seen the progression of both artists and institutions throughout Ukraine. I am excited about the important history and great potential the Ukrainian Museum holds and how it can be a mirror to the rich cultural activities in Ukraine,” Doroshenko said in a statement.

He continued, “In these tragic and unsettling times—with the horrific war—the world now knows more about us, and our culture should continue to create a context for what it means to be Ukrainian today.”

In March, Doroshenko worked with Christie’s to hold an auction of international and Ukrainian artists, which raised over $400,000 for Doctors Without Borders’ efforts in Ukraine. Doroshenko was the commissioner for the Ukrainian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale three times: in 2007, 2009, and 2017.

Founded in 1976, The Ukrainian Museum is the world’s largest art institution outside Ukraine dedicated to highlighting Ukrainian art and culture.

Doroshenko’s first exhibition with the museum will be “Impact Damage,” which will evoke the closed and desperate status of art museums in the war-torn country. The galleries will show an array of works from the museum’s collection, but it will be kept dark except for a series of works by the Kyiv-based film collection Bablyon’13 that depict the current war with Russia.