​A Perspective on Cultural Heritage Through the Lens of Board Games: An Online Event Was Held

On September 25, 2025, an online discussion “Personalities of the 1920s Literature in Kharkiv Literary Museum’s Board Games” took place. The event was co-organized by the project “CITY AND WAR 2.0”, Kharkiv Literary Museum, Department of Historiography, Source Studies and Archaeology, and Academician P.T. Tronko Centre for Ukrainian Studies and Local History of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Maryna Kutsenko, a Candidate of Philological Sciences, Head of the Research and Education Department of the Kharkiv Literary Museum, curator of the 1920s collection, and author of museum board games, shared her work with the audience.

As part of the research and methodological event, a series of games with various mechanics was presented: “Slovo House”, “History”, “Escape from the Sanatorium Zone”, “The Traveler”, and “Flirt”. They allow participants to rediscover the names and destinies of Ukrainian artists from the “Executed Renaissance” era, showing them not only as victims but as living people with their own stories. This approach helps to reveal the characters and relationships of personalities who largely define Kharkiv’s “artistic pantheon”, to “inscribe” their biographies into specific city locations, and to visualize the literary worlds they created. All this makes cultural heritage more accessible and understandable for the average resident.

After the presentation, a lively discussion took place, during which the prospects for the further development of this segment of museum activity were discussed, as well as the experience of other countries (particularly Poland) in creating board games to popularize historical and cultural heritage.