Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago embarks on a new frontier (07/28/02)

Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago embarks on a new frontier

by Oksana Batorfalvy

Chicago - Chicago, mark your calendars for September 29, and prepare to tour the new and expanded Ukrainian National Museum. This is the architectural marvel of architect and native son Joseph I. Mycyk that will proudly serve Ukrainians for generations to come. After your tour, plan to stay for the banquet and give this museum the recognition and homage it truly deserves.

When I was asked to write an article about the museum, which this year marks its 50th anniversary, I recalled the Ukrainian school days of my youth and our field trips to the museum. It was a small three-flat building with warped floors and dusty old armless mannequins unsuitable for the colorful embroidered clothing they were dressed in.

The curator, an old and dusty lady herself, led us around as we giggled and poked fun at the black-and-white photographs of old men with wire-rimmed glasses and huge mustaches. Dimly lit rooms smelled like a musty basement. For the American children we aspired to be, it all seemed so pointless, so meaningless. But we were glad to get out of the classroom on those Saturday school days.

What could I possibly write about something like this? I was skeptical, but I consented. By the time I was ready to write, I had to acknowledge this is a structure that commands respect.

In 1992, under the very competent leadership of then President George Hrycelak, the museum underwent the first of its many upgrades. Dr. Hrycelak recognized that the museum in its current condition had no potential for growth. When the opportunity to obtain an old Czech rectory on the corner of Superior Street and Oakley Boulevard arose, he consented to its purchase. The building, a respectable structure, would be suitable for expansion of a museum whose archives were currently being housed in a damp basement.

The new property had a lot of potential and promised to do justice to a collection that up until that time was not made available to the public for lack of a viewing area. The purchase was made in 1992, and the museum celebrated its grand opening in 1995. Still, the museum's wares could not be displayed. There just wasn't enough room.

The museum houses a huge collection of over 12,000 artifacts in the form of artwork, musical instruments, traditional folk arts, agricultural tools, etc.

The library houses over 29,000 titles in the form of rare books, author-autographed editions, contemporary editions and books about Ukraine in foreign languages. It also contains over 600 periodicals and newspapers. The museum archives collection is the largest in this country. Archival material includes memorabilia dating from 1910, as well as the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. There is information on women's groups, sports organizations, the personal manuscripts of civic leaders, and much, much more. A large photographic collection can also be found here.

Currently the museum is under the guidance of Yaroslaw Hankewych, its sixth president. Mr. Hankewych is the son of Oleksa Hankewych, one of the original founders of the museum. He is a very personable gentleman with a kindly demeanor.

I asked him about the founding of the museum. He leaned back in his chair and told wonderful anecdotes about the origins of the Ukrainian museum. He told me how his father had arrived in Chicago in 1949, with his wife, a daughter and a son. He was a high school professor back in his native Ukraine, but here he was destined to work for the railroad. It was his hobby, not his job, that sustained him. He began to collect books and journals, magazines, and newspapers. He obtained them through the generous donations of other immigrants. Like others who had arrived after the war, he feared his Ukrainian heritage would be lost forever in the new land.

Gradually, the collection grew. Stacks of books and piles of newspapers were sprouting up everywhere. A garage space was located to store the collected materials, but that was only good for a short time as the collection was growing rapidly. Larger and larger spaces were needed. There were several moves, each time to a bigger area. People were generous. They had no use for these items. Mr. Hankewych welcomed all of them.

By 1952 the collection was large enough to begin the Ukrainian National Museum and Archives. In 1953 the first board of directors was called to serve, and in the following year, at the first annual meeting of the Ukrainian National Museum, Dr. Myroslaw Simynovycz was elected the museum's first president.

In 1955 the museum learned about a three-story building for sale on Chicago Avenue. It cost $23,000. The museum had only $500 for a down payment, and it asked the president to sign the mortgage papers. Dr. Simynovycz not only signed, but made the monthly payments on the property as well. In 1968 Dr. Simynovycz died, leaving a balance of $4,000 on the mortgage.

Serendipity strikes

In the interim, the museum learned about a man who had a large collection of Ukrainian books. The man promised to will it to the museum. Upon his death, his son apathetically tossed all the books into the museum's foyer. Stashed amid the pages of the books were dollar bills amounting to $4,002. The museum was faced with a moral dilemma: Should it return the money to the rightful owner, or use it towards the greater good of the Ukrainian people? The museum opted for the latter, and made a posthumous donation to the Ukrainian National Museum in the man's name.

In 1999 the Ukrainian National Museum participated in the annual Museum Day at the capitol rotunda in Springfield, Ill. There were many exhibitors in the rotunda that day, but the Ukrainian exhibit attracted the most visitors. Among them was Sen. Walter Dudycz. In subsequent weeks, Sen. Dudycz, through the Illinois First Program and Gov. Jim Ryan awarded the Ukrainian National Museum an unprecedented $500,000. The museum began plans for an expansion on its adjoining property and hired the architectural firm of Mr. Mycyk.

* * *

I recently toured the new facility. It is a classic structure with huge salons, an elevator and beautiful exhibition rooms. The future library and its adjoining reading room are breathtaking. The room is bathed in natural light that pours in through huge windows. This is truly not the museum of my youth, but an architectural marvel designed to serve as a proud beacon for generations to come. You really need to see it and experience it firsthand to appreciate its magnificence.

The total cost of construction of the museum is $1,100,000. The projected annual maintenance costs are expected to reach $60,000 annually. How will this museum sustain itself over time? Mr. Hankewych is not a man without a vision. In a determined tone he told me, "My father collected quarters and dimes from people that made only $10,000 a year. If I can't get people to donate $1,000 a year, I should not be in this position."

The museum board has plans to initiate a sustaining members club. Donors would contribute $1,000 a year over a period of five years. The museum also has plans to develop a grant committee, which would be responsible for the writing of grants to obtain funding available through various organizations.

There are also plans for a membership drive. Currently the museum operates with a membership of just under 300 people. I am appalled at the lack of support from a community whose population numbers 60,000 people across the city and throughout the metropolitan area. Mr. Hankewych explained that in the past it was the feeling of museum elders to keep the museum self-contained and operating on a budget large enough to just meet monthly expenses. Previous boards of directors did not feel the need for expansions or development.

But the need exists. Mr. Hankewych noted that 90 percent of all visitors to the Ukrainian museum are not Ukrainian. The museum is an active member of the Chicago Field Museum's "Cultural Connections" program. Through this program, DePaul University, Robert Morris College, Columbia College and others hold actual classes in anthropology at the museum. The Chicago Culture bus tour makes a stop here, too. Reporters, journalists and businessmen make the Ukrainian museum their stop prior to their job-related departures for Eastern Europe. People searching for their family roots also stop by and recognize something familiar.

"We must open our doors and promote ourselves if we plan to survive," Mr. Hankewych said enthusiastically. Plans for the new wing include an area entirely designated to the memory of the victims of Chornobyl, and a separate area for victims of the Great Famine. Benefactors are being sought for these and other projects.

The museum is a thriving and living member of a community that has long ignored its existence and taken it for granted. Today it operates under a new and energetic board of directors whose vision is into the future, not entrenched in the past. Concurrently it is searching for generous benefactors and benevolent volunteers to assist them with the work currently at hand.

Once the museum's objective was the preservation of a culture. Today that culture is safely and beautifully ensconced in an architectural design destined to be the pride of future generations. The Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago is coming into the 21st century as an active participant in the ethnography of American culture.

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