NEW YORK – A special preview night for college students and young professionals of the exhibition “Re:Create – Christina Saj’s Transformative Paintings” took place on January 12 at The Ukrainian Museum.
Christina Lewicky, a member of the museum’s Membership Committee, conceived and proposed the project in an effort to engage a new generation of Museum supporters. Ms. Lewicky’s vision was to organize an exclusive, out-of-the-box event for college students and young professionals that would better acquaint them with The Ukrainian Museum. With this goal in mind, she approached the artist Christina Saj and asked her to create a participatory art experience that would anchor the evening’s program.
Taking her cue to develop a new kind of approach to reach young museum visitors, Ms. Saj created an interactive portfolio of artworks that has generated a great deal of excitement and ultimately evolved into a longer-term exhibition installation.
The group of college students and young professionals who inaugurated “Re:Create” in early January came from schools as close as New York University and as far away as Yale University. Ms. Saj guided the group on how to engage with the individual panels and the companion pieces that she had created. Art-making and play, conversation and laughter, and lots of Instagram (#RecreateAtUM) moments went into the mix as the young art enthusiasts produced inspired new interpretations of Ms. Saj’s original panels.
The evening’s program also included a private tour of the timely exhibition, “Andy Warhol: Endangered Species” (which closed February 17). The event concluded with thoughts exchanged about plans to build on the evening’s success and form a group of young museum supporters.
The college students and young professionals event at The Ukrainian Museum came together through the hard work of a wonderful team that was engaged specifically for this project. It included Katherine Gudziak, who spearheaded marketing; Xenia Vitovych, a contributing photographer; and Lya Kotys, who headed design. The members of the Membership Committee, in particular the committee chair, Alla Leshko, served as an invaluable advisors.