Community Projects

UCPBA(O) serves and supports the community it springs from, the Ukrainian-Canadian community of Ottawa, through a number of on-going projects:

• SCHOLARSHIPS: We sponsor a yearly scholarship, awarded at our Christmas dinner, for a resident of Ottawa or someone studying at an Ottawa university or college. Applicants are evaluated on the basis of need, marks and contributions to our community. The scholarship is designed to assist undergraduates. For more information, and applications, go to the scholarship page


• IVAN FRANKO LECTURE: Done in close cooperation with the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, this annual lecture brings the best of academic research on Ukraine and Ukrainians in Canada to the Ottawa audience. Topics since the inception of the series in 1986 have included:
  • The Past as Ideology: Reflections on Ukraine between Russia and Poland (Roman Szporluk, Dept. of History, University of Michigan at the time the lecture was given: now at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies, Harvard University)
  • Ukrainian Architecture in the Context of European Culture (Radoslav Zuk Professor of Architecture, McGill University)
  • Media in Contemporary Ukraine (Marta Dyzcok, Associate Professor, Depts. of History and Political Science, Univ. of Western Ontario)
  • Ukrainian-Canadian Women: The Community and the Homeland (Frances Swyripa, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta)
  • The Forbidden Art of the Ukrainian Avant-Garde, 1910-1935 (Myroslav Shkandryj, Head, Department of German & Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba)

  For a complete list of previous lectures, see the University of Ottawa Chair of Ukrainian Studies web site: http://www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/ and click on ‘Talks and Conferences’ at the bottom of the page.
  

• THE RAMON HNATYSHYN MEMORIAL LECTURE: Again sponsored in conjunction with the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, this lecture series is designed to take advantage of the presence of high-calibre academics in Ottawa, the fact that a large number of highly-knowledgeable analysts on matters Ukrainian work in government and non-government institutions in the city and that such people regularly pass through town. Launched in 2004, we expect this program to consist of two to four lectures a year.
  
• DAVID BURLIUK EXHIBIT. Founder of the Futurist Movement in art and literature in Eastern Europe before the First World War, Ukrainian artist David Burliuk spent time in Japan before settling in New York after the revolutionary period. His granddaughter and artistic executor, Mrs. Mary Holt, lives in Eastern Ontario. Through UCPBA(O)member Bob Seychuk we established contact with her and have been working towards a major exhibit. Member Borys Gengalo has arranged with the Winnipeg Art Gallery to do the show and to have Prof Myroslav Shkandryj, Head, Department of German & Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba, curate it. The exhibit will open in Winnipeg in 2006 and will travel to at least two other locations in Canada.
  The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) was chosen because of the expertise it developed in Ukrainian art through the staging of two recent exhibits:
  • ‘Spirit of Ukraine’ 500 years of Painting
    Selections form the State Museum of Ukrainian Art, Kiev
    
  • ‘the Phenomenon of the Ukrainian Avante-garde’
    Tells the story of Ukrainian modernism, the art of which was literally arrested by the Soviet regime in the 1930s and had not been publicly exhibited since that time.
    Prof Shkandrij wrote part of the catalogue for the first exhibit and was guest curator for the second. He also delivered an Ivan Franko lecture on the Ukrainian Avant-garde.


• UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY COMMUNITY PICNIC: Held in a public park on the last Sunday in August, this picnic brings together the whole community, including staff from the Ukrainian Embassy, to celebrate the declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1991. UCPBA(O) coordinates the event, which includes participation by a wide spectrum of community groups. Activities vary, but usually include:
  • Performances by local Ukrainian singers and musicians
  • Face-painting (for kids and adults)
  • Sing-alongs
  • Food concessions
  • Formal ceremony (including words from the Ambassador of Ukraine)
  • Recreational sports
  • Children’s games
  • A birthday cake for Ukraine (sponsored by Buduchnist Credit Union)