The year 2015 witnessed the celebration of three important and distinguished diaspora luminaries: graphic artist Jacques Hnizdovsky, linguist and scholar Yuri Shevelov and painter Zenowij Onyshkewych. Ukrainian artists, musicians and performing groups grew in number and travelled across oceans to garner new audiences and advance Ukrainian art and culture. At the same time, organized protests against Russian musicians who publicly promoted Vladimir Putin’s aggression spread throughout many cities in the North America. Throughout 2015, the Russian invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory continued to have a profound effect on the cultural and artistic life of Ukrainians.
Centuries-old art held hostage
On April 8, Amsterdam’s district court ruled that Ukraine was eligible to claim rights to the Scythian gold artifacts from an exhibition sent out before the Russian invasion of Crimea, Among the items on loan were 565 rare treasures from Crimean museums, which remain in boxes in a storage facility awaiting a court decision about where they should be shipped.
The “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea” exhibit was originally gathered from five Ukrainian museums, four of which are located in Crimea. Back in March 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian government had claimed the entire collection as state property and demanded that the entire collection be returned to Kyiv. Crimean museums filed their own lawsuit in November 2014 in Amsterdam demanding that the Allard Pierson Museum return the Crimean part of the collection. Amid fears that Russia would loot the treasures if returned to occupied Crimea and then permanently move them to St. Petersburg or Moscow, the Amsterdam museum said it could not return the treasures until the legal ownership was clear.
Meanwhile, a collection of stolen 17th century Dutch masterpieces was alleged to have resurfaced in rebel-held eastern Ukraine 10 years after the paintings had been missing. On December 7, the Westfries Museum in the Dutch city of Horn announced that two men approached the Dutch Embassy in Kyiv in July offering to sell the 24 paintings back. The men claimed they found the collection in a villa in eastern Ukraine and asked $5.4 million for it – half its value when stolen in 2005.
Arthur Brand, an expert on stolen art traveled to Kyiv, while the Westfries Museum Director Ad Geerdink warned these works were in danger of being sold on the black market after the museum’s own efforts to retrieve them failed. The Ukrainian government is working part with Holland in the ongoing investigation.
Photography on exhibit
Chicago’s Ukrainian National Museum (UNM) hosted three exhibits devoted to photography.
An exceptional photo exhibit opened, called “Viktor Gurniak: Road from the Maidan,” on January 16. The photographs of Mr. Gurniak, a photojournalist and volunteer fighter of the Aidar Battalion offered a striking glimpse into the realities of war in Ukraine. Mr. Gurniak was killed in October 2014 during an attack in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in the Luhansk region while he was evacuating wounded soldiers. Born in Ternopil, Mr. Gurniak was co-founder of the LUFA photo agency in Lviv and a frequent contributor to Reuters, UNIAN and Insider. He devoted many years to Plast National Scouting Organization in Ukraine, where he was a beloved leader and role model. The evening’s guest speaker was Nolan Peterson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot and veteran who had also spent six months as a war correspondent in the ATO zone with Ukrainian soldiers. This exhibit later traveled to Cleveland and other Plast centers in the United States.
On May 8, the UNM opened the exhibit “Conflict Zone: Ukraine. The War in Ukraine Through the Eyes of Ukrainian Photojournalists.” This exhibit featured a selection of 50 photographs by 13 young Ukrainian photojournalists who served on the front lines of the war in eastern Ukraine as correspondents. The powerful images depicted the everyday life of soldiers, the grief-stricken faces of civilians, as well as the hope and resilience of the Ukrainian people. The idea for this showing came from Jerry Kykisz, a Vietnam veteran and the curator at the National Veterans Art Museum. UNM approached Alexey Furman, a Ukrainian photojournalist and Fulbright Scholar to recruit his colleagues for this exhibit. Mr. Furman’s photos had previously appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Geographic Magazine Ukraine. His photo of a shell-shocked woman from a hospital in Mykolayivka won first place in the portrait category of the Picture of the Year International 2015 contest. The organizers planned to display this exhibit in cities throughout the United States, including colleges and universities.
First prize in the portrait category in the Picture of the Year International 2015 contest was won by Alexey Furman for this photo (foreground).
The third exhibit at Chicago’s UNM, “Outtakes” showcased the sports photos of Charles Cherney and opened on March 13. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Mr. Cherney was born in Chicago and is of Ukrainian heritage. He joined the Chicago Tribune as a team journalist and was also a two-time winner of the Chicago Press Photographer of the Year award. Mr. Cherney’s images delighted sports enthusiasts and included moments from Chicago sports teams: the Bears, the Bulls, the Cubs and the White Sox, as well as the Blackhawks, going back to the late 1970s.
Ukraine’s First Lady Maryna Poroshenko accepts a gift from Zenowij Onyshkewych of one of his paintings during the opening of his solo exhibition at The Ukrainian Museum. Pictured in the center is Renata Holod, president of the museum’s board of trustees.
Photos from the Maidan were also shown at the exhibition “Maidan. Ukraine. Road to Freedom” at the Stay Gallery in Downey, Calif., which opened on January 24. The Ukrainian Art Center Inc. of Los Angeles displayed posters and photos, as well as implements used by Ukrainians to fight tanks and bullets: barbed wire wrapped around sticks, metal shields, gas masks and Molotov cocktails. Gallery viewers also heard recordings from the Maidan – explosions, gunfire and people shouting. Included in the program was the West Coast premiere of “Dancing Diplomats,” a movie documenting the joint project between Voloshky Dance Ensemble and the Kirovohrad Philharmonic in 2012.
Three luminaries
Over the course of two days, March 12-13, the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute presented a scholarly forum titled: “Kharkiv – City of Ukrainian Culture: An International Conference in Honor of Yuri Shevelov.” Prof. Shevelov (1908-2002) was not only one of Kharkiv’s greatest native scholars but also a renowned professor of Slavic philology at Columbia University. The panels were dedicated to the extraordinary linguistic, literary and cultural legacy of this giant of Ukrainian studies.
Born of German parents, Prof. Shevelov grew up in Kharkiv, the one-time capital of Ukraine and cradle of the Ukrainian Renaissance that became an indivisible part of his life. This conference illustrated the importance of Kharkiv not only as a political capital, but also as a mecca for Ukrainian artists who created dynamic and unprecedented cultural achievements in literature, art, theater and film, notably in the 1920s.
A visionary intellectual, Prof. Shevelov predicted new threats from Russia unless Ukraine set out to fulfill its colossal modern potential of what he called “unity in variety.” He published over 600 scholarly texts on Ukrainian and Slavic philology and argued against the commonly held view of one original and unified East Slavic language, from which the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian languages diverged.
The year 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of renowned Ukrainian American painter and printmaker Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985). His works have been widely exhibited and many are in permanent collections of museums worldwide. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a large collection of his prints, and his archives are housed in the New York Public Library.
Born in the Ternopil region of Ukraine, Mr. Hnizdovsky moved to the United States in 1949. He was inspired by woodblock printing in Japan, as well as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. His popular woodcuts often depict plants and animals – a favorite theme from his many trips to the Botanical Gardens and Bronx Zoo in New York.
On March 22, Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Branch 75 sponsored the “Jacques Hnizdovsky Flora and Fauna Centennial Exhibit” featuring over 95 works of art at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey in Whippany. In addition to woodcuts, the exhibit included several pen-and-ink drawings, watercolors and tapestries, which were rarely previously seen.
On May 29, the National Art Museum in Kyiv opened a showing of over 100 of Mr. Hnizdovsky’s works. Smaller exhibits travelled to Poltava, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk in the fall.
Born in 1929, Zenowij Onyshkewych is a prolific Ukrainian American artist whose works are found in prestigious international collections, including a life-size portrait of Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. On September 30, The Ukrainian Museum in New York launched a showing of his drawings, watercolors and oils titled: “Sixty Years an Artist: A Retrospective Exhibition of Works by Zenowij Onyshkewych,” which included landscapes, portraits and caricatures. They illustrate his romantic approach to landscapes and capacity to express human emotions when confronted with the forces of nature.
An American immigrant who settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Mr. Onyshkewych found himself drawn to Impressionism and Japanese influences. He served in the Korean War and the growing inwardness in his works and fascination with earlier epochs in art are not uncommon for someone who survived two wars – one as a youth and the other as a soldier.
His caricatures, paintings and editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The National Observer, Readers Digest and books published by St. Martin’s Press, McGraw Hill and Random House.
Music and dance
On May 14, Marko Topchii won the International Gredos San Diego Classical Guitar Competition in Madrid. Hailing from Kyiv, Mr. Topchii performed on May 24 with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and on April 30 appeared in New York at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.
Aleksei Semenenko, a violinist from Ukraine, was second-prize winner at the Queen Elizabeth Competitions in Brussels held on May 4-30. Vladyslava Luchenko was a semi-finalist.
A newly formed chorus made its successful debut in Oakville, Ontario, at a concert in St. Joseph’s Church on November 17. Conducted by Uwe Lieflander, the Sheptytsky Institute Choir consists of mostly non-Ukrainian singers. Seven selections sung by the choir were by Toronto-born composer Roman Hurko.
Earlier in the year, on May 31, Mr. Hurko conducted the premiere of his new composition, the English-language Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom No. 3 at Washington’s Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family.
Composer Roman Hurko at the premiere.
And on October 18, director Halyna Kvitka Kondracki conducted the premiere of Mr. Hurko’s Liturgy No. 4 for female voices commissioned by the Vesnivka Choir in Toronto. This was part of an inaugural concert to commence the 50th anniversary season of the Toronto-based Vesnivka Choir.
Over one weekend, March 13-15, the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus performed its program “Brothers! We Shall Live” in the cities of Rochester, N.Y., Passaic, N.J., and Stamford, Conn. These concerts were devoted to music set to the words of Taras Shevchenko and raised over $50,000 for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
On June 13-14 The Ukrainian Museum in New York presented programs by bandurist Julian Kytasty and multi-instrumentalist Michael Alpert titled “Jewish Musical Traditions in Ukraine” and “Ballads from the Ukrainian and Yiddish Heartland.”
The Lehenda Ukrainian Dance Company from Melbourne, Australia, brought its colorful production of “Kazka” to Canada and the United States during the summer months. “Kazka” is an original folk ballet inspired by Ukrainian fairy tales and created by Melanie Moravski-Dechnycz. On July 9, New Yorkers, New Jerseyans and others filled the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to watch young performers weave stories of supernatural spirits, moonlit woodland creatures and maidens tossing garlands into a river to foretell the future. The composer was Nicholas Buc and the set designer was Stephan Moravski. This dance company had previously appeared at the Piers Festival, Melbourne fringe Festival and White Night Melbourne. Lehenda also performed during the summer in Toronto, Chicago and Wilmington, Del., and at the Ukrainian Cultural Festival at the Soyuzivka Heritage Center.
The Commonwealth Lyric Theater (CLT) under the direction of artistic director Alexander Prokhorov staged Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s opera “Zaporozhets za Dunayem” (Kozak Beyond the Danube), joining forces with local Ukrainian choirs and dance companies in the New England area. Bass Dmytro Pavluk sang the central role of Ivan Karas. The CLT has developed a reputation in the Boston area for its bold revivals of lesser-known operas and considers its mission to nurture and promote young talent. The first performances took place in Newton, Mass., on May 14-15 and drew praise from the Boston Globe and the Boston Musical Intelligencer. CLT’s executive director, Kyiv-born soprano Olha Lisovska, sang the role of Oksana and was the inspiration behind this production, staged in the hope that more opera companies in North America and Europe would be persuaded to include “Zaporozhets” in their repertoire. Additional performances took place on May 17 in Hartford, Conn., and on May 22 in SUNY Albany’s Main Theater.
As in past years, The Washington Group Cultural Fund continued to present Ukrainian concerts, art and photo exhibits. This included concerts by violinist Marc Bouchkov (February 1), pianist Mykola Suk (February 8) and the Gerdan folk ensemble (February 15). This last event also included an art and photo exhibit: “Revolution of Dignity: Images from Ukraine’s Maidan, 2013-2014” on February 18.
On October 4, TWG showcased violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv and pianist Angelina Gadeliya in a recital of Ukrainian music, titled “Ukraine: Journey to Freedom,” which included music from their new album with music by Viktor Kosenko, Borys Liatoshynsky, Valentin Silvestrov and Myroslav Skoryk. Violinist Aleksey Semenenko and pianist Inna Firsova appeared in concert as part of the Embassy Series on October 6. And on November 1, soprano Vira Slywotzky and pianist Yegor Shevstov performed Ukrainian, French and American vocal music.
Protests against pro-Putin musicians
Protests and demonstrations by Ukrainians continued to follow conductor Valery Gergiev at many of his U.S. appearances. Mr. Gergiev was one of the prominent Russian artists who signed an open letter in support of Mr. Putin’s wars. Moreover, protesters emphasized that two Russian banks that were the principal partners of the Mariinsky Foundation of America (sponsors of Mr. Gergiev’s 2015 U.S. tour) were outlawed under U.S. sanctions.
On January 30, 150 people braved the bitter cold, gathering across from the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, N.J., to protest the appearance of Mr. Gergiev, conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra at a gala concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of the arts center. Local print and online media covered the protest with reports and interviews.
Lev Khmelkovsky
Ukrainians protest the Morristown, N.J., concert of Valery Gergiev, conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra, at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on January 30.
One week later, on February 6, demonstrators showed up at the Adrienne Arsht Center of the Performing Arts in Miami to demonstrate at Mr. Gergiev’s next appearance. This group was joined by representatives from Amnesty International and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Back north in Philadelphia on February 12-13, nearly 50 people came to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts to protest Mr. Gergiev’s appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a result, Allison Vulgamore, the orchestra’s president and CEO, came outside both nights to talk with the protesters. The local ABC television station and the Philadelphia Inquirer covered the protests.
In an April 12 editorial “Hate speech is not free speech,” The Ukrainian Weekly reported the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s (TSO) decision to cancel pianist Valentina Lisitsa’s guest appearances at concerts scheduled for Roy Thomson Hall. This action was widely reported and discussed in news media and launched a firestorm of cries of “censorship,” while Ms. Lisitsa called on all her fans to write to the TSO. Unfortunately, the vitriol had another victim. Stewart Goodyear, the pianist scheduled to replace Ms. Lisitsa regretted on his Facebook how “…her attitude and the mob-like behavior of her devotees, censored Rachmaninoff’s second concerto.”
Ms. Lisitsa had been exposed in a December 12, 2014, article in The Ukrainian Weekly “When ‘high culture’ merges with terrorism” for her racist and hateful posts on her Facebook pages, engaging in sweeping vulgar attacks, stereotyping Ukrainians. TSO President and CEO Jeff Melanson told The Canadian Press: “This is not about free speech… political perspective or persuasion, this is about very offensive, intolerant comments about people.” On April 26, Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, wrote that the TSO was justified in the cancellation just as the NBA was justified in banning LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life over his racist remarks.
Poetry
Adrian Bryttan presented a premiere reading of his new rhyming translations of Taras Shevchenko’s “Kobzar” at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in New York on April 26. This was the first time English translations were composed that mirrored not only end-rhymes, but also all internal rhythmic and musical elements in the original, and in many cases, even the same number of syllables. Mr. Bryttan incorporated a running slide show with his English-language presentation for the audience, which included many non-Ukrainians.
On May 12, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago hosted an evening of poetry by Vasyl Makhno and Oleksandr Fraze-Frazenko. Now a resident of New York City, Mr. Makhno was born in Chortkiv, Ukraine. Mr. Fraze-Frazenko is also a screenwriter, singer and translator, and represents the younger generation of poets from Ukraine.
In Tucson at the University of Arizona Student Union Gallery, an evening celebrating the poetry and art of Taras Shevchenko took place on March 13. Organized by the Ukrainian American Society (UAS) of Tucson, this professionally prepared exhibit was provided by the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco. Viewers could study Shevchenko’s paintings on Ukrainian, Kazakh and architectural themes, and also read his poems in translations. Dr. Ihor Kunasz, president of the UAS, welcomed the audience with a short introduction about the poet and artist’s life.
On August 22, the Ontario town of Timmins held a ribbon-cutting ceremony as it rededicated its Kobzar Park and unveiled a new statue of Taras Shevchenko. Named after Shevchenko’s first published major collection of poems, Kobzar Park was officially established in 1981 to recognize the contributions of Ukrainian pioneer settlers to Canada and the Timmons-Porcupine Gold Camp. The committee chose local sculptor Tyler Fauvelle to create a four-foot bronze of a mature Shevchenko in historic footwear and clothing.
Films and television
Opening on September 20, the 2015 Toronto Film Festival featured a film about Maidan – “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” by Evgeny Afineevsky. “Winter on Fire” became a feature offering on Netflix and was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it was greeted, according to reviews, with a standing ovation. “Winter on Fire” is one of five films nominated for best documentary feature for the 2016 Academy Awards.
TIFF
Scene from “Winter on Fire,” a new film about the Euro-Maidan, which became the Revolution of Dignity.
On March 11, The Ukrainian Museum in New York hosted a presentation of three videos by New York filmmaker Damian Kolodiy. The centerpiece of the afternoon was “A Ukrainian Soldier’s Account from the Front Lines,” a documentary about one soldier who was part of the ATO forces surrounded by Russian troops in the Debaltseve cauldron. Mr. Kolodiy’s film showed Oleksander Zozuliak in a Kyiv hospital bed recovering from massive injuries as he recounted his terrifying story of being crushed and trapped under a Russian tank.
The subsequent panel discussion organized by Andrea Chalupa included Michael Weiss, author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror” and Mouaz Moustafa, the central figure in “Red Lines”, an award-winning documentary about Syrian activists. Lessons were drawn from the struggles of both Syrian and Ukrainian oppositions, in their home fronts and in political efforts to harness international support.
Director Olga Morkova’s documentary “Crimea Unveiled” was screened on March 25 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York. Ms. Morkova’s film highlighted Rustem Skibin, a Crimean Tatar artist forced to relocate to Kyiv upon the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian peninsula – a symbol of the tragic decline of a culture and a whole nation, starting with the 1944 forced exile of nearly the entire Crimean population by the Soviets. Ayla Bakkalli, U.S. representative of the Indigenous Crimean Tatar Mejlis, expanded on the history and present situation of Crimean Tatars.
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s film “The Tribe” about a boarding school for deaf children near Kyiv met with unprecedented acclaim and collected the most awards in the history of Ukrainian cinema. On June 17, “The Tribe” opened at the Film Forum in New York City for a two-week run. Director Slaboshpitskiy and lead actress Yana Novikova came to New York on a publicity tour and answered questions in an exclusive interview for The Ukrainian Weekly.
“The Tribe” was filmed with deaf actors and portrays a society that has regressed to a primitive and desperate state. Mr. Slaboshpitskiy explained that he wanted people to understand this is “not about deafness; it is about human beings.” He also spoke about the present-day outlook for the deaf and other handicapped groups throughout Ukraine.
On July 7, the 2012 Ukrainian film “Haytarma” (“The Return”) was screened at the National Democratic Institute in Washington. The showing was co-sponsored by the Embassy of Ukraine and the Crimean television station ATR, which had been forced to leave Crimea and now broadcasts from Kyiv. The screenplay tells the story of Amet-khan Sultan (1920-1971), a Crimean test pilot and decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, who returns to his home town of Alupka just before the brutal Soviet deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944. “Haytarma” contains striking aerial footage and also shows the tragedy of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars; it is available for viewing on YouTube. “Haytarma” portrays hard truths about the past and, in the light of recent events, is a prophetic film. It is now banned in Russia.
Another film director, Andrew Tkach, was also interviewed in the September 6 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly. His documentary “Generation Maidan: A Year of Revolution and War” was shot with the help of the Babylon ’13 filmmakers who captured history in the making with amazing footage of Maidan. While other Maidan films may have presented a bewildering display of violence, “Generation Maidan” told a multi-layered story through the eyes of participants, including a detailed story about Pavel Yurov, abducted and imprisoned for 72 days by separatists in Sloviansk.
On May 31, Ukrainian Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the Critic’s Choice Awards. She plays the role of Lagertha in the much-watched History channel series “Vikings,” now in its third season.
Ms. Winnick’s Ukrainian roots run deep; her grandfather was a member of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. She is proud to say in numerous interviews how her long involvement in Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization was the foundation of her upbringing and she has spoken out clearly about the current struggles in Ukraine. Growing up in Toronto, Ms. Winnick immersed herself in martial arts, attaining a black belt in karate and taekwondo. On the set of “Vikings” she does all her own stunts. Ms. Winnick is planning her first visit to Ukraine. She stated she would very much like to visit Kyiv and would also like to meet with Plast scouts in Ukraine.
Art and museums
On February 15, The Ukrainian Museum in New York presented the first exhibit showcasing avant-garde artists who shaped early 20th century Ukrainian theater and influenced the theatrical world stage. “Staging the Ukrainian Avant-Garde of the 1910s and 1920s” featured modernist artists, many of them exiled or executed during Stalin’s purges of the 1930s. The exposition included art works of costume, set and make-up design, as well as photographs and original posters, and principally the art of Vadym Meller, who would become the principal designer for the Berezil Artistic Association, led by director Les Kurbas.
Petro Humenyuk’s “St. Nicholas” (2014).
“Iconart: Visions of a World Unseen,” an exhibit of contemporary sacred art from Ukraine, opened at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on March 20. In cooperation with Iconart Gallery in Lviv, this exposition illustrated the ties between medieval religious iconography and current interpretations of the sacred. The works centered on images of “the world unseen”: a sinner in search of paradise, man in search of God, heroes and seducers, and saints and traitors.
The Ukrainian Institute of America on March 28 launched an exposition called “Mystical Power of the Pysanka, Ukrainian Easter Eggs by Sofika Zielyk.” Ms. Zielyk was awarded a Fulbright grant for her research about the influence of folk art on the work of eastern Ukrainian artists of the early 20th century. On June 24, she also exhibited her works at the newly built America House, a component of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
The unique pictorial style from the Ukrainian Zaporozhian Kozak settlements along the Dnipro river valley near Dnipropetrovsk was showcased by The Ukrainian Museum in New York starting May 10. This exhibit was titled “Petrykivka: The Soul of Ukraine.” Named after a village, Petrykivka art originated as a colorful decorative tradition in central Ukraine, as painting of interior and exterior adobe white-washed walls, ceiling beams and hearths, as well as decorations on furniture, boxes and wooden kitchenware. Motifs include a great variety of stylized bird, flower and garden elements. In 2013 UNESCO added the Petrykivka art form to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
On March 27, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago opened the exhibit “Australian Artists from Ukraine,” which showcased the work of six Ukrainian artists who settled in Australia following World War II. According to Australian art critic Paul Haefliger: “Of all the foreign aspirants who have visited these shores since the war, Michael Kmit [one of the six artists] is the only one who has made any impression on the present generation of painters.” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott sent a letter of appreciation for this exhibit.
The Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago unveiled the exhibit “Apostle of Peace” on July 17 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky’s birth. The exposition included personal letters, photos, relics and other artifacts and was meant to honor the metropolitan’s contributions to the Church, his philanthropy for youth and the arts in Ukraine, and his humanitarian deeds sheltering those sought by the Nazis. The Rev. Ivan Kaszczak, author of “Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States” spoke at the opening.
A wedding costume from the Black and Azov sea region.
In celebration of Ukrainian Heritage Day in Toronto, the Ukrainian Museum of Canada – Ontario Branch opened its newest exhibit “Diverse Yet United Part 2” on September 10. (In 2014, “Diverse Yet United Part 1” featured costumes from the ethnographic regions along Ukraine’s western border.) Part 2 of this exhibit consisted of exquisitely embroidered shirts and complex full costumes from the southern, eastern, central regions of Ukraine and part of western Ukraine: the Black and Azov sea regions, the Sloboda region, Central Dnipro region, Podillia and Pokuttia, as well as a striking Crimean Tatar wedding dress. The display included information about notable Ukrainian public figures born in the regions presented in the exhibit.
A Crimean Tatar wedding costume.
“The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists, 1908-2015,” which opened at The Ukrainian Museum in New York on October 18, was the first major exhibition to examine the relationship between Ukrainian identity and women artists beyond the borders of Ukraine. It featured over 100 works by 43 artists, primarily from North America. The works included icon painting and the traditional genres of still life, portraiture and landscape, in addition to figurative sculpture, abstract painting, tapestry and mixed-media works.
Meanwhile, in Hamtramck, Mich., the Ukrainian American Archives and Museum (UAAM) of Detroit purchased a much-needed larger building to reach a broader audience and to increase the visibility of the Ukrainian heritage. Throughout the years, the UAAM had become the repository of a great quantity of traditional crafts, historical documents, photos, archives and books of local prominent Americans of Ukrainian descent.
Irma Osadsa’s “Talisman No. 26” (2011, conte crayon and pastel on paper).
Christina (Holowchak) Debarry’s “SoHo” (2001, dry pastels on textured watercolor paper).
On May 9 an installation called “Home East” by Waldemar Klyuzko covered the windows of the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York with symbolic red and white jagged lines of tape. The intent was to adapt these universal colors for danger to let everyone know about the present war and crisis in eastern Ukraine.
Yaroslava Surmach Mills’ “Easter Visit to Grandparents” (not dated, reverse painting on glass).
The opening night of “Home East” included a performance by Yara Arts Group of poems by Serhiy Zhadan. Mr. Zhadan is a noted writer of the post-independence generation in Ukraine and had previously read his works at The Ukrainian Museum in New York on March 13, and in Philadelphia on March 15. His poems feature prominently in Yara’s new production “Hitting Bedrock.” This new work opened in New York on February 20, presenting an entire new cycle of poetry written by Mr. Zhadan. “Hitting Bedrock” refers to the present war-torn situation of residents of the former mining town of Donetsk.
University series on Ukraine
In 2015, five events hosted by Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., were intended to foster more informed dialogue and to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine. These events, co-produced by the Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts and the Departments of Dance, Music and Film Studies, drew large and diverse audiences and included panels and discussions on Crimea, screenings of the documentaries “Music of Survival” and “Winter of Fire” (see film section).
“Music of Survival: The Story of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus” (UBC) was shown on March 29. And on April 10, Stephen Zaets, a high school-aged junior member of the UBC coordinated and presented “Night of Bandura.” Finally, on December 2, the audience experienced an audio-visual presentation of a Ukrainian “Koliada” with the participation of the Yara Arts Group from New York.