American Friends of Ukraine aim to increase awareness (05/04/97)

American Friends of Ukraine aim to increase awareness

by R.L. Chomiak
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - A new philanthropic foundation based in Washington is bucking the trend of introducing things American to Ukraine. It has set as its goal the introduction of things Ukrainian to America - to increase Americans' awareness of Ukraine.

The founder and chairperson of American Friends for Ukraine (AFU) is a New Yorker, Vera Hladun, while the president and vice-president are two "Washington hands," Richard W. Murphy and his wife, Ludmilla K. Murphy. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, counselor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and chairman of the center's American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee, is the foundation's honorary chairman.

AFU was established late last year by Ms. Hladun, but its coming-out party is scheduled for May 14, when Washington "movers and shakers" - mainly from Congress and the media - will be invited to a reception to introduce them to the foundation.

In order to focus its work, Mr. Murphy explained, the foundation plans to limit its activities to three areas: culture, education and the media.

Specifically, he added, it plans to bring high-quality cultural presentations from Ukraine, publish educational materials on Ukraine for schools, underwrite travel grants for American scholars to do research in Ukraine, and organize working trips to Ukraine by American journalists and foreign news editors. TV documentary films on Ukraine also are in the media file of AFU's plans, he said.

Mrs. Murphy said the first cultural presentation sponsored by the foundation will be a U.S. tour of the Kyiv Chamber Choir beginning this December in Washington. This choir is a world-class musical ensemble, she added.

Meanwhile, said Mrs. Murphy, Ms. Hladun already has made arrangements with New York's Museum of American Folk Art, to bring to the United States an exhibition of Ukrainian costumes from museums in Ukraine. This exhibition is scheduled to begin a tour next year.

"Our long-term goal," said Mr. Murphy, "is to integrate Ukrainian artists and cultural offerings into the list of international artists considered desirable for presentation in the leading theaters and museums on a sustainable basis."

Ms. Hladun, a daughter of immigrants from Ukraine, is in the business of restoring 18th and 19th century American buildings and is a collector of decorative arts and furniture of that era. She also has a long record of philanthropic work as supporter of such institutions as the American Museum in Bath, England; New York's Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of American Folk Art; Harvard Ukrainian Studies Institute; Project Ukraine of the American Jewish Committee.

Mr. Murphy is a senior associate at CSIS and executive director of its American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee. Mrs. Murphy is an economist, who has worked for a number of years at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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