On June 23, 2023, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine opened the exhibition project «Europe and Ukraine: Dialogue Across Ages». The exhibition is timed to the anniversary of Ukraine’s granting of candidate status to the European Union.

Culture is a set of spiritual and material values created by a people throughout its existence. The culture of every nation is a part of the world culture. Today, there are no isolated cultures; they are all the result of civilizational interpenetration. The exhibition «Europe and Ukraine: Dialogue Across Ages» aims to illustrate the influence of Western European culture on the Ukrainian culture in the cultural, artistic, technological, industrial, social and political contexts. The Ukrainian culture has been organically adapting Western European styles for centuries. This is vividly illustrated by the objects of the Ukrainian and European fine and decorative arts of the late 18^th and 19^th centuries presented at the exhibition.

The formation of the Ukrainian noble culture took place in the context and under the influence of Western European culture, which was embodied both in the direct use and «consumption» of things and in the interpretation of ideas and technologies. The exhibition presents objects that belonged to the Ukrainian elite of the Dnipro Ukraine in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries: porcelain, art glass, furniture and clothing, and gilded bronze items. One of the important results of Western European influence on the Ukrainian production was the establishment of the local ceramic industry. The products of the first ceramic factories and manufactories are now among the most exquisite works of the Ukrainian decorative art. The exhibition pays special attention to the porcelain products of the Volokytyn factory of Andrii Miklashevskyi and faience products of the Kyiv-Mezhyhiria factory. The authors of the exhibition focused on the items of the Kyiv-Mezhyhiria factory, as this year marks the 225^th anniversary of its foundation.

The exhibition presents furniture in the style of the famous French furniture maker Andre-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), Western European cabinet furniture, exquisite Austrian Biedermeier living room furniture, and French carved showcases in the Second Rococo style. The interior furnishings are complemented by massive vases, bronze candelabra, and table sculptures based on the works of the French sculptor Clodion. These items not only shaped the tastes of the Ukrainian elite of the time, but also stimulated the production of such things in Ukraine.

Most of the furniture on display came from the collection of the Tereshchenko family of industrialists and philanthropists.

At the same time, the exhibition presents materials that illustrate the impact of the Western European democratic transformations of the mid-19^th century on the part of Ukraine which belonged to the Russian Empire.