The Ukrainian Museum hosts a variety of events throughout the year, ranging from public programs such as film screenings, book signings, lectures, and various performances to programs offered specifically for Museum members: for example, talks given by the director or curators, regularly scheduled social gatherings, and holiday celebrations. Some events are developed in conjunction with exhibitions, while others focus on contemporary issues, commemorate historical events, or simply feature aspects of Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage. Check back regularly to see what’s coming up, and consider becoming a Museum member to take full advantage of all that the Museum offers.
Upcoming Events at the Museum
MAY
(Members only) New Exhibition Openings: Peter Hujar: Rialto & Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments
The Ukrainian Museum is excited to present the exhibition Peter Hujar: Rialto. Peter Hujar (1934–1987) exemplified the downtown New York arts scene. His training, paired with his identity and background, resulted in the powerfully disruptive and influential photographs that he created in the early years of his career. Born into a Ukrainian American immigrant family, he would later plant his roots in the heart of New York City’s East Village, also known as the Ukrainian Village, where he would be enthralled by the world of performance art, music, theatre, and literature. This exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum will feature 75 of Hujar’s earliest photographs – from 1955 until 1969. Portraits, country landscapes, and city life will be the focus of the exhibition.
Oleksandr Glyadelov has lived and worked in Kyiv since 1974. His work addresses humanitarian crises, child homelessness, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, prisons, and military conflicts. As an independent professional photojournalist, he has covered military conflicts in Moldova, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Oleksandr Glyadelov’s photographic exhibition features sites and events that he has documented across Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion. The images function as timestamps profoundly recording both devastation and survival during the ongoing war. Glyadelov captures urban scenes and rural settlements, often just hours after their destruction. Glyadelov is the winner of the 2020 Shevchenko Prize.
This event is by invitation only and for Museum members. Registration is required.
Thursday 2 May
6.00 – 8.00 pm
New Exhibition Celebration and Talks: Peter Hujar: Rialto & Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments
Join us for an afternoon of special tours and talks given by the curators of the newly opened exhibitions Peter Hujar: Rialto and Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments.
Tickets: General $20, Member $15
Saturday 4 May
2.00 – 3.00 pm
PAST Events at the Museum
APRIL
Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Beneath the Rubble: Documenting Devastation and Loss in Mariupol
The Museum is pleased to host this important event organized by SITU Research and Human Rights Watch about an extensive research project report and visual investigation into the assault on Mariupol, which stands as one of the worst chapters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds, and SITU Research recently released the joint report “Our City Was Gone: Russia’s Devastation of Mariupol, Ukraine.” This joint report documents Russia’s horrific destruction of Mariupol, which has turned a once thriving city into a wasteland of charred buildings and immeasurable human loss. The joint project includes a thorough 224-page report, a 22-minute video, and an online feature with a comprehensive digital damage assessment, an analysis of graves to help estimate the death toll, an organogram with Russian units and commanders involved in apparent war crimes, and other data. The report is based on 240 interviews, an analysis of 850 photos and videos, documents, and dozens of satellite images.
Join us for a screening of the video, followed by a panel discussion to launch the New York City release of this investigation. The panel will include Ida Sawyer, Director of Crisis & Conflict with Human Rights Watch, Sam Dubberley, Managing Director of Digital Investigations Lab with Human Rights Watch, Brad Samuels, Director of SITU Research, and Evan Grothjan, Senior Researcher at SITU Research. The panel discussion will be moderated by Adriana Farmiga, Acting Dean and Adjunct Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.
This event is organized in partnership with Cooper Union. Admission is free but registration is required. Space is limited. Registration is first come, first serve.
Tuesday 16 April
7.00 – 8.30 pm
Benefit Concert: Ancient Songs of Spring
The predecessors of today’s UNWLA members had a vision to create a Ukrainian Museum in New York City. Now at this time of war, it is more vital than ever to safeguard our heritage. We invite all those who are passionate about preserving our cultural legacy to a benefit performance by the Zozulka trio followed by a reception featuring a traditional Viennese table. Zozulka (Maria Sonevytsky, Eva Salina, Willa Roberts) will perform ancient spring songs from the Polisia area, the home of Prymachenko, in celebration of spring and the success of the Maria Prymachenko: Glory to Ukraine exhibition. The artist’s paintings, steeped in folklore and fantasy, were most certainly inspired by these songs that she heard and most probably sang throughout her life.
This benefit honors the women of the UNWLA who had the vision to establish a Ukrainian Museum in New York.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Ukrainian Museum.
Sunday 7 Aprill
5.00 – 7.30 pm
MARCH
Music at the Museum: Music for War-Torn Ukraine
Join us for a special concert to mark 10 years of Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine. We are pleased to partner with the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, its director, Leah Batstone, and three outstanding musicians who will perform a program of war-related works and other moving pieces.
Marichka Marczyk is a well-known singer, activist, and musician with the Ukrainian Canadian band Balaklava Blues and the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, and is an expert on the ancient polyphonic style of traditional Ukrainian folk singing. Ukrainian American cellist Valeriya Sholokhova is a soloist and principal cellist with a number of chamber orchestras, including the New Orchestra of Washington and The Refugee Orchestra Project, and is on the Lincoln Center Stage roster. Pianist Margarita Rovenskaya has performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad, including performances at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, and Merkin Hall, and has won numerous international competitions. The musical program will be preceded by a talk by Ms. Marczyk, who will share her recent experience as a volunteer combat medic in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine.
This concert is dedicated to the Ukrainian men, women, and children who have perished in this senseless war, to the brave defenders of Ukraine on the frontlines, and to all the brave people of Ukraine.
Sunday 24 March
3.00 – 4.30 pm
Guest Speaker: Discussion with Renowned Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky
We are pleased to invite you to a very special talk with one of the most acclaimed ballet choreographers in the world today, Alexei Ratmansky. Mr. Ratmansky is of Ukrainian descent and grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine. He began his dance career with the National Ballet of Ukraine, after which he was principal dancer with and choreographed ballets for major ballet companies around the world, including the National Opera of Ukraine, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and American Ballet Theater. Most recently, he was appointed Artist in Residence at the New York City Ballet.
Mr. Ratmansky has been outspoken about his support for his homeland of Ukraine and his opposition to Russia’s war. His latest work for the New York City Ballet, entitled Solitude, is dedicated to the children of Ukraine, victims of the war, and was inspired by a photograph of a father kneeling next to the body of his young son, killed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv. The ballet recently premiered to glowing reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other media. During his appearance at the Museum, the celebrated choreographer will speak about his extraordinary career and how Russia’s war on Ukraine has changed his life.
Sunday 10 March
3.00 – 4.30 pm
Presentation: Ukrainian Women Artists Against the Empire with Oksana Semenik
Join us for a special event that celebrates Women’s Month and the creativity and resilience of the women of Ukraine. Ukrainian women artists have always been fiercely opposed to colonialism, totalitarianism, and repression. Oksana Semenik will discuss a number of Ukrainian women artists, mostly of the 20th century – a particularly turbulent time in Ukraine’s history. Her subjects will range from more traditional artists to the modernists, from the dissidents of the past to the contemporary artists standing against Russia’s horrific war on Ukraine.
Saturday 9 March
2.00 – 3.30 pm
Special Tour: Maria Prymachenko Exhibition with Oksana Semenik
Delve into the wildly imaginative world of Maria Prymachenko with art historian Oksana Semenik, an expert on the artist. Ms. Semenik is the author of the introductory essay about Maria Prymachenko in the catalogue of the Museum’s ongoing exhibition and is currently writing a book about this iconic Ukrainian artist, to be published this year by Ukrainian publisher Vikhola. Ms. Semenik will discuss Maria Prymachenko’s uniqueness as a self-taught artist who infused her art with layers of folk traditions, fables, symbolism, allegory, and political messages to create storied and at times striking images, saturated with meaning and imbued with vibrant color, that are a feast for the eyes.
Saturday 2 March
2.00 – 3.30 pm
FEBRUARY
Roundtable: Decolonization in the Real World
This is the first roundtable of 2024 in the series of seminal panel discussions we started last year with experts discussing the ongoing effort to correct Russian and Soviet colonialism on Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage. In this roundtable, our panel will discuss what is needed for the decolonization process, and how ordinary citizens can personally support this initiative. Our distinguished panelists will include Dr. Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the author of How Propaganda Works (2015) and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018); Oksana Semenik, an art historian, journalist, and research scholar based in Kyiv and the creator of the widely followed X (Twitter) account “Ukrainian Art History”; and Dr. Maria Sonevytsky, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Music at Bard College and the author of Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine (2019) and Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi (2023). The discussion will be moderated by Museum director Peter Doroshenko.
Thursday 29 February
7.00 – 9.00 pm
2 Years of War Commemoration: Maria Prymachenko’s Triumph over War, the Chornobyl Disaster, and Beasts – A Presentation with Oksana Semenik
Two years to the day since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Museum will host art historian Oksana Semenik for a special presentation on the largely ignored yet compelling works by Maria Prymachenko that provide insight into this iconic Ukrainian artist, who was wrongly perceived by Soviet authorities to be a simple woman. Maria painted entire series (not part of our exhibition) on the trauma of war, the Chornobyl disaster, and even satires on Soviet collective farming, whose dark themes are still relevant today. Ms. Semenik will discuss these moving pieces, replete with deep meaning, and how Maria furtively worked with and ultimately triumphed over these dark themes. Join us to commemorate the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of the destruction that Russia’s horrific war has brought upon them.
Saturday 24 February
2.00 – 3.30 pm
JANUARY
Gallery Talk: Maria Prymachenko’s Captions and Dialect
Maria Prymachenko lived all her life in an area between Kyiv and Chornobyl, Ukraine. Her paintings were originally titled in her native regional dialect. The artist also wrote imaginative stories in this dialect on the backs of her canvases, about the subjects in her paintings. Join us for a talk and walk through the Maria Prymachenko exhibition led by Ivanna Svitliar, a linguist from Kyiv, currently a Fulbright student, and the head of Project R.I.D, a volunteer community project centered around the Ukrainian language. Ms. Svitliar will share Maria Prymachenko’s intriguing stories and the insight that her use of captions and regional dialect gives us into her art. Museum admission is included in the ticket price.
Saturday 27 January
2.00 – 3.00 pm
(in Ukrainian)
Sunday 28 January
2.00 – 3.00 pm
(in English)
Please check back frequently for new events and updates.