One room on the main floor of the Museum displays a small portion of the Museum's extensive collection of Ukrainian handicrafts and folk art, including many fine examples of costumes, embroidery, ceramics, wood carving and weaving. These exhibits of traditinal Ukrainian art have been created both in Ukraine and in Canada. The collection in constantly expanding.

Folk costume is a basic element of a country's culture and craft, closely tied with its whole history.

Vasyl Boiko, a fellow at the Institute of Art, Folklore and Ethnography of the Academy of Arts and Science of Ukraine, writes that folk costume "distinguishes itself through its originality and the wealth of regional variations... The Ukrainian costume is a genuine encyclopedia of the people's creativity. In it are synthesized the folk arts of weaving, style, sewing, adornment (embroidery, applique, trimming, etc.)."

Traditional dress in Ukraine shows a high degree of sophistication, elegance, and artistry. For centuries scholars of ethnography (descriptive anthropology) and folklore have collected and studied Ukrainian folk costumes. Art historians have paid much attention to the highly artistic embroidery that is a fundamental element of folk costume.

The golden age of Ukrainian folk costume was the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century when regional variations reached their peak. Availability of factory-made fabrics in the second half of the 19th century changed the fabric used in the fashions, but the general features of folk dress persisted in small towns and villages until the First World War. After the First World War, folk dress began to disappear in the countryside because of the low price of urban clothing and the peasant's desire to dress like townsfolk.

Scholars of Ukrainian folk costume usually classify it by regional differences. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine recognizes five regional groups: that of the Middle Dnieper Region, originating in the Hetman period; Polisia; Podilia; central Galicia and Volhynia; and the Carpathian Mountains and Subcarpathia, including Pokutia, Bukovyna, Hutsul, Boiko, and Lemko.

When Ukrainian settlers first came to the Canada over one hundred years ago, they brought with them the rich and varied art and culture of their homeland. One such art form is Ukrainian embroidery, an art which is present in both the secular and sacred aspects of life. Our exhibit displays artifacts which stem from both of these aspects.

Ukrainian artistic embroidery is one of the ancient and widespread genres of folk art, a favorite way of decorating clothes and household objects. Traditional Ukrainian embroidery plays an important role in public events, celebrations and special occasions of the communities. For festive events women wear embroidered blouses and men wear embroided shirts. It also appeares on pillows, table linens, clothes and placed near household religious icons, covers the easter baskets.

Cross is one of most widespread technique in Ukrainian embroidery. It is simple and convenient technique to implement patterns. The beauty of work made by this technique depends from exact counting threads on fabric and direction the top stitches (the top stitches suppose to lie on the same direction).

Wood carving is an important and highly developed branch of the Ukrainian folk art. It has been refined for generations and has brought luxury items into every day life. Household articles, farm implements, transportation vehicles, as well as religious architecture were made out of wood, and most of these items were decorated with woodcarved designs. The ornamentation was applied to functional and decorative wooden items consisted of mostly geometric patterns. As with all Ukrainian folk art, the decorative patterns used had a deep symbolic meaning.

   Bandura

The bandura is a unique Ukrainian musical instrument that dates back to the 7-th century. Originally it was used for accompaniment of epic folk ballads and occasional folk dances. It became immensely popular between the 15th and 18th centuries when traveling musicians, called Kobzars, entertained in towns and villages of Ukraine, while singing about the exploits of the Kozaks(Cossak, Ukrainian warriors). Over the years, the bandura acquired more and more strings and became a fully chromatic instrument with switches for changing tonalities. The Bandura is taught as a solo and ensemble instrument in music schools and conservatories in Ukraine.

   Tsymbaly (Hammer Dulcimer)

The hammer dulcimer is an instrument that is well known in many countries. It's origins can be traced to the Middle East where it was known as the santur and it is thought that the instrument was first brought to Ukraine during the Crusades. It spread to Ukraine through Hungary and Rumania, where it is known as a cymbalom and was probably introduced into Ukraine by wandering Gypsy and Jewish musicians. The earliest mention of the Ukrainian term tsymbaly dates back only to the 17th century. In Moldova earlier mentions dating to 1546 can be found. The hammer dulcimer is similar in construction to the husli, consisting of a large wooden box with a soundboard on which strings are strung across in courses of three to five strings. Two bridges are placed on the soundboard over which the strings are stretched. These divide the strings so that each course of strings can produce two different notes. The strings are struck with wooden hammers. Usually the instrument is played in a seated position - placed on the knees of the performer - or in a standing position, with the aid of a long belt that goes around the neck of the performer.

   Trembita

The trembita,woodwind instrument, is the Ukrainian version of the alpine horn. It is usually made of spruce that has been split, a central bore dug out and then glued together and bound with birch bark. It is usually some three meters (10 feet) long, being 2.3 to 5 cm (1-2 in.) wide at the mouthpiece and 6cm (3 1/2 in) wide at the bell. Shorter trembitas of half to one meter in length can be found. This shorter instruments are often called "vivcharska dudka" (shepherds pipe) or "syhnal'na truba." The mouthpiece is often made from a separate piece. The range is approximately three octaves, encompassing the natural harmonic series such as in the french horn. The trembita was primarily used in signaling events such as the coming of visitors, enemies or death in the mountain regions of Ukraine and thus a system of elaborate signals was devised. Carol motifs were also played on the instrument at Christmas. Like many of the instruments of Western Ukraine, the trembita is not unique to the Ukrainian people. Instruments such as the trombita, trabita, trebita can be found in Poland and the bucium in Romania.