CLEVELAND – The Costume Society of America (CSA) – a national organization involved in the study, education, collection, preservation, presentation and interpretation of dress and appearance in past, present, and future societies – held its annual meeting this year in Cleveland on May 24-29.
One of the features of the CSA National Symposium is the “CSA Angels Project,” a one-day event providing conservation, storage and curatorial assistance to a costume collection in the host city. For its 2016 project, CSA chose the Ukrainian Museum-Archives. Seven college professors, four professional textile conservators and more than a dozen volunteers came to the UMA to clean, catalogue and place more than 300 items into acid-free storage boxes.
As part of the project, the CSA “angels” trained UMA volunteers on professional handling of precious textiles and other costume-related apparel. The UMA textile collection consists of more than 1,000 individual items from the late 19th and early 20th centuries into the present day. In 2011, the Ohio Humanities Council awarded the UMA a $15,000 Major Grant to catalogue the collection and display that portion of the collection donated by Dr. Myroslav and Anna Hnatiuk.
Monday, May 23, the UMA held a reception at which UMA Board President Paul Burlij welcomed members of the Costume Society of America and thanked them in advance for their volunteer work. UMA Resident Scholar Andrew Fedynsky also spoke, recognizing the volunteers who put in time to arrange overnight accommodations for the CSA “angels,” the welcoming reception, work space, breakfast and lunch for the following day. Mr. Fedynsky singled out Curator Aniza Kraus for bringing the CSA “Angels Project” to the UMA, organizing the welcome and workspace, and for her overall management of the UMA collections and exhibits.
Vacuuming an embroidered cloth. In all, CSA conservators prepared more than 300 items for storage in acid-free containers.
CSA “angels” came from all corners of America – five were from California, four each from Michigan and New York, three from Texas; others came from as far away as North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and from Alberta in Canada. Most were unfamiliar with Ukrainian hand-loomed textiles, embroidered apparel, sheep-skin vests (kyptari), etc. but quickly came to appreciate them. The volunteers spent the day vacuuming items, which had been put in deep-freeze quarantine for fear of moth infection, cleaning others and creating a professional, photographic catalogue and storage. In all, the CSA provided the UMA with services and equipment valued at more than $30,000. Volunteers from the CSA organized donations from archival supply companies Gaylord Archival, University Products and Talas, who donated archival boxes, tissue paper, labels, etc. The CSA also provided a stipend that was used to purchase shelving units and temperature and humidity monitors.
The Cleveland chapter of the Ukrainian American Youth Association donated food for the reception, including varenyky; State Meats in Parma donated a food tray; and a UMA board member contributed $1,500 to help defray UMA expenses associated with welcoming a large group of out-of-town visitors.
Members of the Costume Society of America established contacts and, indeed friendships. Martha Winslow Grimm, co-chair of the Angels Project, noted “The angels of the Costume Society of America are extremely grateful for the warm hospitality extended to us during our workday at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives. We enjoyed being part of your close community, even though it was for just one day. We loved working on your costume and textile collection and learning more about Ukrainian textiles and culture. Thank you for your kindness and warm hospitality.”
At the end of their workday, Mr. Burlij presented each of the CSA “angels” with a pysanka as a memento of their volunteer work at the UMA and their visit to Cleveland. While returning to the hotel, several of the Angels commented that they had never before experienced such hospitality on a volunteer workday.