Collections

With more than 8,000 objects, the Museum’s folk art collection is among the most comprehensive outside Ukraine. It preserves the rich artistic traditions that have shaped Ukrainian cultural identity for generations, reflecting the creativity, craftsmanship, and resilience of the Ukrainian people.

The collection includes embroidered and woven textiles from across Ukraine, among them kilims, rushnyky (ritual cloths), shirts, sashes, vests, outer garments, and complete traditional costumes. It also features an outstanding collection of pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs), together with jewelry and decorative objects in ceramic, carved wood, and metal dating primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Representing diverse regions and local traditions, these works offer a vivid record of everyday life, ritual, and artistic expression while preserving techniques and customs passed from one generation to the next.

The Museum’s fine art collection comprises more than 3,300 works in a wide range of media, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, works on paper, photography, and contemporary tapestries. Built over decades through gifts, acquisitions, and the generosity of artists and collectors, the collection reflects the richness and diversity of Ukrainian artistic expression.

Its greatest strengths lie in Ukrainian modernism of the early 20th century and the work of artists of the Ukrainian diaspora. Among the leading figures represented are Alexander Archipenko, the pioneering sculptor whose innovations transformed modern sculpture; David Burliuk, a founder of Ukrainian Futurism; Alexis Gritchenko (Oleksa Hryshchenko), the internationally acclaimed painter and author; Vasyl H. Krychevsky, architect, painter, graphic artist, and co-founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Art in Kyiv in 1917; Oleksa Novakivsky, whose influential art school in Lviv shaped generations of artists; Ivan Trusz, celebrated for his enduring contribution to Ukrainian landscape painting; and the renowned self-taught artist Nikifor.

The Museum also holds important works by artists of the Ukrainian diaspora, many of whom settled in the United States after World War II and played a vital role in the cultural life of Ukrainian American communities. Among them are Jacques Hnizdovsky, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, Jurij Solovij, Luboslav Hutsaliuk, Mykhailo Chereshnovsky, Edward Kozak, Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn, and Mychajlo Moroz.

The Museum’s archival collection comprises more than 35,000 items documenting the history of Ukrainian immigration to the United States and preserving the cultural legacy of Ukrainians in America and beyond. It serves as an important resource for scholars, students, and the broader public.

Its holdings include photographs, manuscripts and documents, the personal correspondence of notable individuals, playbills, exhibition catalogues and brochures, rare books, and historic maps that illuminate the social, cultural, and artistic life of Ukrainian communities across generations.

The archives also include distinguished numismatic and philatelic collections. The numismatic holdings feature coins and paper currency of the Ukrainian National Republic (1917–1920), including the celebrated quadrilingual 100-karbovanets banknote designed by the eminent graphic artist Heorhiy Narbut, as well as currency issued by independent Ukraine.

Established in 1988, the philatelic collection has grown through donations from Ukrainian Americans in New York and surrounding communities, as well as from Ukrainian organizations in the United States and abroad. Particularly strong in material relating to the Underground Post of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Republic, refugee camps, and modern Ukraine, the collection documents another important dimension of Ukrainian history and identity.