Brooklyn Ukrainian Group true to its mission (07/23/06)

Brooklyn Ukrainian Group true to its mission

by Yarema Belej
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

NEW YORK - Over borsch and varenyky in the East Village Ukrainian Restaurant, two young women openly discussed and answered questions about a growing Ukrainian arts group that has grown significantly since its inception over two years ago.

With membership nearing 80 people, the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group's (BUG) mission "is to support each other in artistic endeavors, to raise funds for charitable causes and to promote Ukrainian arts and culture within the Ukrainian diaspora and beyond."

BUG has held true to this mission privately and publicly at various events and locations, such as the Soyuzivka estate in upstate New York, the St. George Street Festival in Manhattan, various film openings and concerts. The group's very energetic co-founders, Roxy Toporowych, Olesia Lew, Ruta Lew and Maya Lew, are always willing to spread the word about their group to anyone willing to listen.

It has been this foursome of young Ukrainian ladies that has driven BUG past a small group of friends and into the fabric of the tri-state (New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania) Ukrainian community and well beyond. In fact, Ruta and Maya Lew were very excited to tell The Ukrainian Weekly that they recently added a member each from, England and Odesa.

Their motivation in creating this entity was to "create something for Ukrainian artists and craftspeople, because there aren't really any organizations that work specifically with these kinds of people," said Ruta Lew, a New York City school teacher. "Also, we wanted to create something different, because many of the organizations out there are politically involved, so we wanted to create something completely different."

This is perhaps the most intriguing of all of BUG's attributes; it does not fall under the aegis of any other organization, but is completely autonomous. Although many of its members are in Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, the Ukrainian American Youth Asociation (SUM), or any of a number of Ukrainian organizations, the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group is not guided by anything other than the goal of supporting and promoting of Ukrainian artists.

"We wanted to be a general group that was out there to promote Ukrainian artists and arts," said Ruta Lew. We are involved with "people who are Ukrainian or of Ukrainian descent who work in the arts, to help support them. So that you don't have to be a Ukrainian who only draws on Ukrainian themes, we want to support everyone," she added.

To this end, BUG's mission statement also reads that it is "a voluntary group that was founded in 2003 to support Ukrainian arts." BUG members include visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, craftspeople, photographers, culinary artists (co-founder Olesia Lew is a chef), dancers, actors, as well as those interested in Ukrainian culture.

It is also interesting to note that BUG has several members who are not Ukrainian, but who are friends, neighbors and colleagues of Ukrainians.

"BUG is also about having fun," noted Maya Lew, who works as a recruiter in Manhattan. "We wanted to create a cooperative, a club of sorts, to help support artists and to have a good time doing it." The first event that BUG held was a lot of fun indeed. Dressed in traditional Ukrainian costumes, members went around New York's East Village, Union Square and individuals' homes in the area in December 2003 and January 2004 singing Ukrainian Christmas carols to raise funds for "Folk!" (a film by filmmaker Roxy Toporowych) and Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brooklyn.

This was soon followed by the first annual Soyuzivka spring clean-up event in April 2004, which saved the Ukrainian National Association's estate thousands of dollars and allowed BUG members to give back to their beloved getaway. The third such endeavor took place just a few weekends ago where BUG members got their hands dirty for the benefit of the community.

In fact, BUG managed to assemble a solid cast of 12 volunteers who successfully cleaned, arranged and prepared many areas of Soyuzivka's grounds and rooms this April. Such seemingly small projects go a very long way at a place as big as Soyuzivka.

Another favorite event of the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group is the St. George Ukrainian Street Festival in Manhattan. BUG has had a booth on Seventh Street for the last three years, including this year's installment, selling artwork, promoting their members and spreading the word about the group and its mission.

The name Brooklyn Ukrainian Group is something that the members are quick to qualify as not a limiting standard. One does not have to reside or visit Brooklyn to become or remain a member of BUG. It just happened to be where the co-founders were all from and was perfect for an acronym. "I always tell people that we are all over the place not just in Brooklyn," said Maya Lew. Evidence of the group's membership seems to suggest BUG has gotten over this small identity crisis.

The future seems to be very bright for the artistic group, which has been growing exponentially since its inception. BUG's involvement in diverse events and at various places seems to show that the group is here to stay. This not only bodes well for BUG, but also for the Ukrainian community as a whole.

Artists and all interested in art now have an organization devoted to their field and to the advancement of Ukrainian artists' endeavors, as well as the Ukrainian community as a whole.

To join or to learn more about the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group log on to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrooklynUkrainianGroup/.

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