EDMONTON, Alberta – Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, director of the Kule Folklore Center, Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography, and curator of the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, was recently inducted into the University of Alberta Museums’ Curator Hall of Fame.
At the 2015 Museums Celebration ceremony held on March 23 at the U of A Museums Enterprise Square Galleries, Dr. Nahachewsky joined one other recipient – Pamela Mayne Correia, curator, Fossil Hominid, Osteology, and Bryan/Gruhn Ethnography Collections, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts – to receive this prestigious honor. Chancellor Ralph Young and Janine Andrews, executive director of the University of Alberta Museums, presided over this event.
A permanent plaque to each new award winner was unveiled to join past curator recipients. The Hall of Fame can be viewed at the Enterprise Square Galleries.
Dr. Nahachewsky, curator, along with Maryna Chernyavska, archivist, preside over the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives (BMUFA), which is the largest repository of Ukrainian and Canadian Ukrainian folklore materials in North America. Its mandate is to document, preserve and study Ukrainian folklore in Ukraine, Canada and around the world as it changes over time.
The collection houses objects that represent continuity and change, creativity and expressiveness of the Ukrainian culture, including books, journals, posters, maps, printed ephemera, manuscripts, commercial and field audio and video recordings, artifacts and photographs related to the study of: traditional songs, tales, sayings, beliefs, calendar customs, life cycle customs, material culture, folk arts, performance traditions, community life; Ukrainian ethnic culture such as Ukrainian dance, choral activity, drama, embroidery, foodlore, ceramics; and vernacular, elite and popular culture as these relate to Ukrainian identity.
The BMUFA includes a broad continuum of objects, from the rare to the commonplace, from elite and popular cultural spheres. The BMUFA also maintains a collection of books, manuscripts and other commercial publications as well.
The collection is open to students, scholars and the general public. It is used in teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses related to Ukrainian folklore. It is also used by outside researchers for studies related to Ukrainian and Canadian folklore, and it is a resource for continuing community outreach projects and publications.
The BMUFA originated in 1977 as a collection of student manuscripts through the initiative of Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky. Today, the BMUFA is dedicated to creating the best possible long-term resource for research in Ukrainian folklore and traditional culture.
The BMUFA is part of the Peter and Doris Kule Center for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. The BMUFA and the Kule Folklore Center are supported into perpetuity by a series of community sponsored endowments and accepted by the University of Alberta. The archives were renamed the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives in 2003 to honor Dr. Medwidsky.
For more information on the center or archives or if you have a collection or an oral history you would like to donate, readers may contact [email protected] or visit www.ukrfolk.ca.