The Solidarity Culture Center "Sunflower" at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw was established as a crisis center for solidarity and support in the first days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. It started with collecting money, medicaments, and food spontaneously, as well as the mass production of sandwiches for arriving refugees. Quickly, an ad hoc, grassroots impulse began to transform into an orderly action. Currently, "Sunflower" functions as an open, multilingual and multicultural community center.

The sunflower is not only the hallmark of the global movement against nuclear weapons but also the national flower of Ukraine – a country that is the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil. Sunflowers became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and hope when a video of a woman handing Russian soldiers a handful of sunflower seeds and saying: “You will die on my land. Put the seeds in your pockets, at least let sunflowers grow after you” went viral.

The Solidary Culture Center "Sunflower" was established from the bottom up, thanks to the initiative of Ukrainian artists and cultural workers - Taras Gembik and Maria Beburia from the Blyzkist collective, Yulia Krivich, and Polish artists and activists, as well as the people from the MSN team. The initiative operates in the Museum's office building on Pańska Street and is supported by the institution's resources and infrastructure. On the one hand, "Sunflower" is part of the history of "solidarity" museology (such as the transformation of the Museum of Art in Malmo into a home for female prisoners liberated from concentration camps in 1945, or the creation of food bases in American museums during the COVID-19 pandemic), on the other hand, it had, especially in the first phase, more in common with an aid operation than with an "art project".

“Sunflower” created a whole network of cooperating collectives and organizations: Thanks to the Wandering Women Foundation and the involvement of volunteers, sandwiches and hot meals were made in the "Sunflower"; people gathered around the Be Foundation collected medicines and medical equipment; students of the Academy of Special Education conducted classes for refugee children, and photographic services were provided by the "Photos for Documents" group and lawyers supporting BIPOC refugees.

Currently, "Sunflower" supports the community gathered around the initiative and cooperates with Ukrainian artists, activists and cultural workers, many of whom currently live or temporarily stay in Warsaw. “Sunflower” runs its own public program on war, history, culture and art of Ukraine, Russian imperialism or the problem of decolonization in Central and Eastern Europe. It hosts Polish and Ukrainian language lessons, workshops for children and adults, educational and performative activities, lectures, meetings of the “Pogovorymo” film club, poetry evenings, concerts, meetings with artists and activists. It is also a safe space for being together. As people associated with the "Sunflower" community write: "Together we are waiting for better times by supporting each other and looking for answers to the question of the role of art institutions during the war".

The "Sunflower" Collective: Maria Beburia, Sebastian Cichocki, Kuba Depczyński, Taras Gembik, Yulia Krivich, Kaja Kusztra, Natalia Sielewicz, Bogna Stefańska.