The Ukrainian Museum in the East Village has kicked off its 50th anniversary celebration with new exhibitions, free public events and preparations for an anniversary gala. The museum, which houses the largest collection of Ukrainian cultural heritage outside of Ukraine, also continues to support Ukrainian museums operating in times of war.
This was reported NY1 Spectrum News.
The Ukrainian Museum in New York’s East Village has kicked off its 50th anniversary year with special programs, new exhibits, free public events and a benefit gala to be held in the fall.
One of the central events of the anniversary program was the exhibition “The Ground Shifts Beneath Our Feet”, dedicated to the work of one of the most famous contemporary Ukrainian artists, Zhanna Kadyrova.
The exhibition included five large-scale art projects created after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. Among them is the multimedia installation “Forest”, dedicated to the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in June 2023.
“This is simultaneously a creepy, melancholic and deeply poetic work that speaks of the Ukrainian sense of resilience,” said the museum’s executive director, Olena Siyanko.
According to her, the exhibition is an artistic reaction to the war and reflects the understanding of modern Ukrainian realities through Kadyrova’s work.
In parallel, the museum opened the exhibition “A Living Canvas”, which rethinks the institution’s own collection and showcases both historical exhibits and new arrivals.
The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, woven carpets, embroidered towels and other examples of Ukrainian art.
“This is the feeling, endurance and resilience that allowed Ukrainians to survive and create,” said Olena Siyanko.
In addition to exhibition activities, the museum continues to implement the “SAFE” program, which supports museums and cultural workers in Ukraine.
“Since 2022, the Ukrainian Museum has been helping our colleagues – be it in conservation, packaging, evacuation of museum objects, and more recently through microgrants for small museums,” the director said.
The celebration will culminate in an anniversary gala evening, which will take place on November 8, 2026 at the Liberty Warehouse in the Red Hook district (Brooklyn).
The event program includes a cocktail reception, a gala dinner and a festive program, and an evening lounge.
The gala evening will be co-chaired by Olga Hnateyko, Solomiya Ivakhiv, Ukrainian chef Yevhen Klopotenko, and Khrystyna Rakhytska. Honorary junior co-chairs, representatives of the younger generation of the Ukrainian-American community, will also join the organization.
The anniversary program is designed not only to celebrate the museum’s half-century of activity, but also to showcase contemporary Ukrainian art, support Ukrainian culture, and strengthen ties between Ukraine and the international community.
Background
The Ukrainian Museum was founded in 1976 by the Union of Ukrainian Women of America (UNWLA) in an area where generations of Ukrainian immigrants settled. In 2005, it moved to a purpose-built building at 222 East 6th Street in Manhattan.
The foundation of the museum collection in 1976 was the UNWLA collection, which dates back to 1933. At that time, the organization purchased about 600 objects of Ukrainian folk art for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the World's Fair in Chicago. Since at that time Ukraine did not have its own independent state, the pavilion was not funded by the national government and was created at the expense of the Ukrainian community in the United States. During the exhibition, it was visited by about two million people.
Today, the museum has the largest collection of Ukrainian cultural heritage outside Ukraine. The museum's fund includes more than 8 thousand objects of folk art, about 3.3 thousand works of fine art and approximately 35 thousand archival materials. This is one of the largest collections of Ukrainian cultural heritage outside Ukraine.
The mission of the museum is to preserve, research and popularize the artistic and cultural heritage of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Through exhibitions, educational programs, collections, and public events, the museum introduces American audiences to the history and contemporary culture of Ukraine, and works to restore Ukrainian context to artists who have been mistakenly classified as Russian for decades.
Photo: Ukrainian Museum
Author: Inna Mikhno