Panorama of Ukrainian culture in the Big Apple (12/27/81)

Panorama of Ukrainian culture in the Big Apple

by Helen Perozak Smindak

There are still 10 days to Christmas, if you go by the Julian calendar, as do most Ukrainians in the Big Apple. That means there are still 10 shopping days during which Ukrainian residents of the Big Apple and its suburbs can skip over to Little Ukraine in Manhattan's East Village and come up with some colorful, unique treasures for their families and friends.

You might begin at Second Avenue and 13th Street with a visit to The Ukrainian Museum's gift shop and work your way down Second Avenue to Seventh Street and the Surma store, thence east to the First Avenue children's wear shop and Delto Gifts. Or you can start at Surma's (just a few steps away from the Cooper Union Foundation Building) and work your way eastward and northward until you reach the museum.

Either way, you'll find that the museum's gift shop, cheerfully managed by Irene Wolosiansky, prides itself on offering one-of-a-kind items produced here and in Ukraine. Right now, handmade traditional ornaments for the Christmas tree are the going thing - shiny spiders, stars and mobiles, arrangements of wheat stalks and pine cones, and lightweight clowns, mushrooms and water pitchers created from blown-out eggs.

There's a charming curio shelf, about 10 inches long, the wood carved by hand with traditional patterns, which holds several tiny ceramic pots and pitchers created by Anna Bidiak of Astoria. A quaint accessory for any home, the shelf is available with motifs and ceramic designs typical of the Hutsul and Khmelnytshchyna regions of Ukraine.

Other wood items include a hand-carved salt box, perfect for a kitchen wall, spoons and scaled-down reproductions of butter churns and spinning wheels which would make appropriate accessories for a kitchen or dining area.

The shop carries a small stock of jewelry, including a striking multistrand gerdan or necklace of red glass beads, as well as icons, hand-embroidered cushions, pottery, dolls in Ukrainian costume, baby-size banduras and clothespin kozaks. There are exclusive Christmas cards and notecards featuring work by artists Petro Cholodny, Mychajlo Czereszniowskyj, Arcadia Okenska-Petryshyn and Liuboslav Hutsaliuk, a selection of graphics, original drawings and watercolors by Ukrainian artists, and many books and publications on Ukrainian culture.

Prices range from $2.50 to $70, and museum members receive a 10 percent discount on all merchandise.

A few blocks south of the museum, next door to the Ukrainian National Home, is Diadem Men's and Women's Wear, where Walter Zakynsky custom tailors highly fashionable reversible capes, coats, skirts, jackets and vests of cashmere wool. The store also carries blouses, such as a high-necked Victorian-styled lace blouse ($45) and a lovely classic style with gathers, tucks and self-covered buttons ($75), as well as angora hats, gloves and scarves. In the sweater department, there's a stylish offering in a one-size dolman-sleeved mohair sweater in popcorn stitch ($35).

East Seventh Street between First and Third avenues is a veritable treasure trove of shops and galleries - the Surma Book & Music Co. at No. 11, Norm Enamel Art Gallery at No. 13, the Mayana Art Gallery at No. 21, Roksolana Leather at No. 41 and Arka Company at No. 48.

At the Surma store, where you'll find Ukrainian books, records, periodicals, clothing, foods and folk art, owner Myron W. Surmach and his assistants provide cheerful and efficient service as Ukrainian music and carols fill the air. Embroidered dresses and blouses, carved wooden toys, wool blankets and brocaded ribbon by the yard are in great supply. In one corner, Eugene Hrycha, former professor of Greek and Latin in Ukraine, busily sells books and periodicals; in another, record albums are stacked ceiling high. There's a small curtained dressing room in mid-store where customers can try on Kozak tunics and embroidered blouses.

The large greeting card counter includes "How to Have a Ukrainian Christmas" recipe cards designed by Mr. Surmach's sister, Yaroslava Surmach Mills, and a full line of note cards with reproductions of Yaroslava's reverse paintings on glass. Surma also carries many of the items needed to make the Christmas recipes: ground poppy seeds, shelled wheat, vanilla beans, sun-dried mushrooms and unrefined Ukrainian-style honey from the Surmach family apiaries in Saddle River, N.J. (Mr. Surmach's father, Myron Surmach Sr., a health food advocate and vegetarian, tends the hives.)

At Norm Enamel Art Gallery, Konstantin Szonk-Rusych offers a great range of enamel art pieces, in a variety of sizes and subjects, all framed and ready to hang on the wall. The shop has a supply of icons and there's a large selection of jewelry and wood and ceramic folk art items.

Mayana Gallery, now owned by ceramic artist Slava Gerulak, has an exhibit of Ms. Gerulak's ceramic sculptures, ceramic plates and plaques, pen and ink drawings, color prints and monoprints. The predominant subject in the ceramic pieces is the Madonna and Child or the female head or figure, an important theme in Ms. Gerulak's work. Prices range from $5 for a flower pendant to $350 for a large sculpture.

Handsome leather bags, wallets, belts and jewelry boxes, hand tooled by Roksolana Klymuk, fill the window and shelves of one side of the Roksolana Leather shop. Miss Klymuk, who specializes in custom orders, also has a stock of tiny hand-embroidered cushions filled with floral-scented herbs. The other side of the shop, the domain of Miss Klymuk's partner, Yuriy Wyznyckyj, features silkscreened T-shirts and - recently added - sweatshirts in a variety of colors and sizes. (For store hours and information, call 598-9698.)

For gift ideas, Yaroslav Pastushenko and Roman Porytko, who run the Arka department store, point to their large stock of ceramic pieces, Hutsul wood boxes with intricate incrustation work, banduras (full size, ready to play), and records for the Christmas season: the Byzantine Chorus, the Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandurist Capella and other outstanding groups and soloists.

The Arka store has a full stock of DMC embroidery thread, in all colors, for any needlework you or your mother may wish to do.

Second Avenue, in addition to The Ukrainian Museum and the Diadem shop, is the locale of the Olha Sonevytsky Art Gallery, at No. 98. Mrs. Sonevytsky can show you paintings by Hutsaliuk, Solohub, Horniatkewych, Krychevsky, Kondra, Fedushchak and other Ukrainian artists.

Over at 146 First Ave., the Delto Gift Shop owned by Zenon Iwanycky specializes in fringed shawls (great for this season's ethnic look), sweaters, tablecloths and fabric by the yard, as well as ceramics and other gift items.

For children's wear, drop in to the First Avenue Infants' and Children's Wear at 112 First Ave. and let owner Michael Pyrsky suggest something suitable for the little ones on your gift list.

The Molode Zhyttia Plast supplies store at 304 E. Ninth St., around the corner from the Ukrainian National Home, might solve your quest for gifts for teenagers.

Certainly not to be missed is the Eko Universal Gift Store, at 145 Second Ave., (next door to the Orchidia Restaurant). The tiny shop, crammed with clothing, ceramics and greetings cards, has a cozy, bazaar-like atmosphere.

And, while you're scooting around from store to store, don't forget to stop in at a Ukrainian food store or meat market. Varenyky and holubtsi can be bought by the dozen at Hladun Catering & Home Cooked Foods, while choice cuts of meat and spicy kovbasa by the pound are available at Kurowycky Meat Products (142 First Ave.), the East Village Meat Market (139 Second Ave.) and Brody Meat Products (96 Second Ave.). You're bound to be hungry after all that shopping.

From H to K

Let's pick up our alphabetical round-up of people and events.

A new face on the TV screens during the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts of ABC-TV's "Eyewitness News" is that of Mark Haines, son of Anne Troscianetsky Haines, who used to sing in the New York Metropolitan Area Chorus directed by Stephen Marusevich. Mr. Haines, 35, who joined the "Eyewitness News" staff about a month ago, appears in studio reports and videotaped presentations covering all aspects of news - murders, meetings and garbage strikes. His professional background includes 16 years of television work in Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey and, most recently, a stint with WPRI in Providence, R.I.

Early this fall, pianist Thomas Hrynkiw gave a concert at Chicago's Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in conjunction with an exhibit of work by his brother, artist Robert Hrynkiw, now the manager of PS Galleries in Dallas. Mr. Hrynkiw played Brahms' Second Piano Concerto when he made a solo appearance recently with the orchestra of College Misericordia in Dallas, Pa. (Yes, Pa. is correct). Last Sunday he performed with the Concertium Ensemble, a chamber music group, which gave a concert at the Lehman College Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx.

In Uniondale, L.I., Alex Kalinowsky, a student at Hofstra University, directed the Nassau County bandura trio and the choir of St. Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church when the two groups provided a musical interlude during a parish dinner marking St. Michael's Feast Day. Earlier in the day, he directed the choir in responses for a pontifical liturgy concelebrated in St. Michael's Church by Metropolitan Mstyslav and the Very Rev. Dr. Simon J. Hayuk, St. Michael's pastor.

Continuing its efforts to raise funds so that Ukrainian studies courses can be established at Columbia University, the Barnard-Columbia Ukrainian Club recently held an exhibit of contemporary Ukrainian art (arranged by Slava Gerulak) and a second "Day at Columbia/Night in Ukraine" concert and dance. Ulana Kekish, president of the Barnard Ukrainian Club, reported last week that private donations were adding to the funds already raised by the students and that "we're getting close to our goal." Anyone who wishes to help can send a contribution to the Self-Reliance Credit Union, 98 Second Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003, making checks payable to the Columbia Ukrainian Studies Fund, Account No. 9705.

"November Day," a play written in 1942 by Ivan Kernytsky, was performed by the Lydia Krushelnytsky Drama Studio before an audience of close to 700 at Stuyvesant High School on November 1. Mr. Kernytsky is popularly known as Iker, the humorist and Svoboda columnist. The cast included Nadia Dyba-Podoliak, Tymish and Taras Hankevych, Olenka and Taras Pevny, Yaroslav Shul, Yurko Mykytyn and Taras Yaremko. Musical arrangements were by Ihor Sonevytsky and lights and setting by Taras Hirniak. Orest Pytliar was the guest speaker.

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