The Ukrainian Museum celebrates its 25th anniversary (10/21/01)

The Ukrainian Museum celebrates its 25th anniversary

by Helen Smindak

NEW YORK - The largest Ukrainian women's organization in the United States - the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (UNWLA), or Soyuz Ukrainok, took time out from its busy schedule to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its long-term major project, The Ukrainian Museum.

Ukrainian diplomats and representatives of many Ukrainian organizations were among some 250 museum members and friends who gathered for a gala luncheon at the New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue on Sunday, October 14. Over $200,000 was donated or pledged to the museum's building fund during the afternoon's proceedings.

There was yet another cause for celebration: construction of the highly anticipated new $7.6 million museum facility is expected to begin very soon. Museum officials and staff are elated at the prospect of acquiring much-needed space for treasured collections of folk art, fine arts and archival material, as well as for exhibits, workshops and offices.

Keynote speaker Adrian Karatnycky, president since 1996 of New York's Freedom House, a leading advocate of the world's young democracies, hailed the museum as "one of the pre-eminent Ukrainian American institutions" and said that it enjoys a rightful place among such institutions as Harvard University's Ukrainian Research Institute and the Ukrainian Institute of America, and many beautiful Ukrainian churches.

He predicted that "with the generosity of the people who have gathered on this anniversary and who have pledged significant support in recent years, [the museum] is poised to achieve even more: to become a jewel in the crown of the Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S."

Mr. Karatnycky attributed the museum's success to "the vision of the museum's founders, the leadership of Soyuz Ukrainok and the high degree of professionalism, energy and perseverance of museum director Maria Shust and her excellent staff and co-workers."

He noted that the museum is located in a burgeoning creative neighborhood surrounded by one of the country's most respected universities, New York University, in a city that is the cultural center of the United States - all of this suggesting great potential for the museum's work in coming years.

Mr. Karatnycky pointed out that the problems of Ukraine's transition from communism to freedom, including its cultural development, have placed new responsibilities on the Ukrainian cultural community in the United States - including The Ukrainian Museum - which must continue to be open to the vast variety of Ukraine's cultural output, not only the art and artifacts produced by ethnic Ukrainians, but by the various nationalities and religious groups that inhabit the country.

He suggested that the museum's offerings should include exhibits, lectures and publications focusing on the interaction between Ukrainians and Russians, Crimean Tatars, Jews, Poles and other nationalities who lived in, and in several cases, ruled over Ukraine.

He added: "The legacies of destruction of memory and artifacts that were the result of totalitarian communism, the lack of a distinct Ukrainian national identity on the part of perhaps as much as half the population of Ukraine - these are all issues that Ukraine's internal cultural community and institutions like The Ukrainian Museum must address, as I am certain they will."

Mr. Karatnycky said Ukrainian Americans recognize that their main role in helping Ukraine is in telling Ukraine's story in the West and linking Ukraine to the intellectual and material resources of the United States and the democratic West. "In the years to come, Ukraine will need the expertise and insights of The Ukrainian Museum and of Ukrainian American curators, art historians and ethnographers, as much as we need the skills and insights of scholars, curators, artists and ethnographers based in our homeland."

In Mr. Karatnycky's view, The Ukrainian Museum has played a crucial role over the years in focusing attention on Kyiv's lost architecture, on artists who fled totalitarian repression, and on creative traditions and movements that were suppressed in the era of socialist realism and ideologically driven art.

He said he is convinced that the new museum will see the emergence of a prosperous and forward-looking Ukraine, with leaders of unwavering democratic convictions, with well-funded museums and cultural institutions that will be partners of The Ukrainian Museum.

Mr. Karatnycky spoke before an audience that included Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, and his wife, Natalia; Ukraine's consul general in New York, Serhiy Pohoreltzev, and his wife, Svitlana; and Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, Valeriy Kuchinsky, and his wife, Alla.

Ambassador Gryshchenko brought greetings and a commendation for the Ukrainian National Women's League of America and its work from Ukraine's foreign affairs minister, Anatolii Zlenko.

Among representatives of Ukrainian American organizations present at the banquet were Eugene Ivashkiw, a vice-president of the Ukrainian Congress Comittee of America; Dr. Anna Procyk, a vice-president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society; Walter Nazarewicz, president of the Ukrainian Institute of America; and Maria Lozynskyj, secretary of the executive board of the Women's Association for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine.

Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, who served as the afternoon's master of ceremonies, read a special citation conferred on The Ukrainian Museum by New York Gov. George Pataki and delivered by Orysia Woloszyn, an employee of the New York state government in Albany.

Mr. Lozynskyj continued with a litany of warm greetings and good wishes from New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar and Metropolitan Stefan Soroka of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The list of well-wishers included Eugene and Daymel Shklar of California, to date the largest contributors to The Ukrainian Museum.

Acknowledging that "this great creation was made possible by the work of many individuals," Olha Hnateyko, president of The Ukrainian Museum's Board of Trustees, paid tribute to the late Iwanna Rozankowskyj, one of the prime movers and promoters of the creation of The Ukrainian Museum (it was opened during her term as UNWLA president) and to the museum's past presidents, Alexandra Riznyk, Bohdan Cymbalisty, Titus Hewryk, Joseph Danko and John Luchechko. She praised the leadership of the museum's director, Ms. Shust, and the work of its administrative director, Daria Bajko, and "all the faithful employees of the museum."

For contributions and help in raising funds for the new building, Mrs. Hnateyko offered her thanks and gratitude to museum members and all UNWLA branches, as well as to Mr. and Mrs. Shklar, the Selfreliance (New York) Federal Credit Union, and "our seniors, our youth, the Ukrainian press, our volunteers - indeed, to every person in whose heart lies the fate of our Ukrainian heritage."

Extending greetings to the assembled guests, UNWLA President Iryna Kurowyckyj said the museum's anniversary is being celebrated by all UNWLA Regional Councils throughout the country. She drew a round of hearty laughter when she said that Mrs. Hnateyko "must have been born with a gold spoon in her mouth - money seemed to fall from the skies when she became president."

The afternoon included a musical interlude presented by acclaimed artists Natalia Khoma and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, who offered a highly appealing interpretation of Beethoven's Sonata No. 3, Op. 69 in A major for violoncello and piano.

At the start of the afternoon's program, mezzo-soprano Kalyna Cholhan Boychuk began the opening with ardent notes of "God Bless America" and was joined by the entire assembly in a patriotic response to the recent terrorist attacks and the country's state of war. The invocation was spoken by the Rev. Patrick Paschak, vicar general of the Stamford Diocese of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America, who asked for a moment of silence for "all those who perished or lost loved ones on that Black Tuesday."

Based on a small collection of Ukrainian folk art objects which were purchased for display at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, The Ukrainian Museum was founded in New York in 1976 to preserve the cultural legacy of Ukrainian immigrants in the United States and to introduce the Ukrainian experience to the general public. Its folk-art holdings, accumulated mainly through donations, now include an impressive collection of folk costumes and accessories, embroidered and woven textiles, kylyms, ceramics, woodwork and metalwork objects and pysanky (Easter eggs).

The collection of fine arts - paintings, works on paper and sculptures created by Ukrainian artists working in Ukraine, Europe, the United States and other parts of the world - includes renowned artists Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Hnizdovsky, Oleksa Hryshchenko (Alexis Gritchenko), Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky and the naive artist Nikifor.

Archival material containing thousands of photographs documenting the life of Ukrainian communities in the United States and Canada includes personal correspondence of noted Ukrainians, programs of events, playbills, posters, and exclusive chronicles of organizations and individuals, as well as Ukrainian currency, stamps, ex-libris and rare books.

Folk craft courses and workshops for adults and children, lectures on various topics and community-related cultural events geared for the general public are part of the museum's educational program. In its exhibition agenda, the museum has mounted a wide-ranging spectrum of historical and cultural presentations, among them "The Lost Architecture of Kyiv" and "To Preserve a Heritage: The Story of the Ukrainian Immigration in the United States." Each major exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual, illustrated catalogue with fully researched material; the catalogues are now used in many libraries and schools as sources of information on Ukrainian history and culture.

While city, state and federal funding agencies have supported the museum's operations through the years, the Ukrainian community in the United States has provided the most generous funds, among these a major donation of $2.5 million to the Building Fund and a $1 million Challenge Grant from Eugene and Daymel Shklar of California and a $500,000 gift from the Selfreliance Federal Credit Union in New York City.

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