Opening: 28 February, Friday
14.00 - opening of the exhibition
15.00 - curatorial tour

Exhibition hall of the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life (Uzhhorod, Kapitulna st., 33/a)

The project "Iryna Olshanska's Oikoumena: Building Meanings" highlights one of the prominent segments of the cultural and artistic environment of Stryi in the second half of the twentieth century, which was formed on the idea of actualising the traditions of folk art, the concept of networking enthusiasts, and developed the ideas of the nationally conscious women's movement.

The central personality around which the project unfolds is the Honoured Master of Folk Art, public and artistic figure, collector and embroiderer Iryna Olshanska (20.06.1913 - 06.06.1997). The visual part of the cultural and artistic project is diverse and colourful. The exhibition will feature a unique collection of authentic embroidery samples from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from different ethnographic regions of Ukraine, as well as original embroidered works by Iryna Olshanska.

The informational part of the project focuses on the personalities who contributed to the formation of Iryna Olshanska's active worldview. First of all, it is Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who influenced her choice of life path.
Iryna Olshanska developed in the circle of her gymnasium classmates, who later became prominent in Ukrainian art and public life, including Vira Sventsitska, Katrusia Zarytska, Stefania Kulchytska, Halyna Zakhariasevych, Natalia Yakymchuk, and Stefania Tys-Fur. The dominant part of the project reveals the conscious vectors of Iryna Olshanska's activity and outlines the unique cultural and artistic environment of postwar Stryi.

The exhibition will introduce the history of the Embroiderers' Club, which operated under the leadership of Iryna Olshanska, and partially covers the work of the literary and artistic association "Khvyli Stryi", created in 1964 on the model of the legendary "KTM" in Kyiv and Lviv. Aware of the value of building horizontal ties and the effectiveness of networking, Iryna Olshanska helped to form centres of folk art enthusiasts in Lutsk, Novyi Rozdil, Berezhany, and Drohobych. People actively cooperated with her: H. Tsybuliova from Kyiv region, I. Dunda and M. Balazh from Zakarpattia, H. Herasymovych from Kosiv, P. Klym from Vyzhenka, O. Hasyuk from Vyzhnytsia, D. Pozhodzhuk from Kosmach, P. Berezovska from Klembivka, N. Horlytska, Z. Maherovska, M. Tymoshchuk, I. Sendziuk, and M. Chorna from Lutsk.

An extraordinary aspect of the project is the coverage of the principles of creating a home museum during the Soviet totalitarian era. The exchange of ethnographic and scientific materials with P. Arsenych, H. Demian, I. Honchar, H. Skrypnyk, D. Figol, M. Figol, and K. Shameka is revealed. In cooperation with R. Zakharchuk-Chuhai, E. Dziadyk, O. Voznytsia, O. Bodnar, M. Selivachov, T. Kara-Vasylieva, J. Zanevchyk, M. Bilas, M. Kalyniak, and O. Stakhurska, the foundations of scientific and methodological study of folk culture monuments were developed. The discovered and described artefacts were incorporated into the research works of reputable scholars, published, and added to the achievements of Ukrainian art history. Collaborating with enthusiasts of Ukrainian folk art, local historians, and museum workers, I.Olshanska contributed to the formation of collections of many museums, including the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Crafts of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Taras Shevchenko Museum in Kaniv, and the Olena Kulchytska Art Memorial Museum in Lviv, State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Nahuyevychi", Berezhany Local History Museum, Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna", Historical and Architectural Reserve "Manyavskyi Skyt", National Centre of Folk Culture "Ivan Honchar Museum" in Kyiv, etc. Personal contacts of the Olshansky family, their high authority, and aristocratic spirit united and strengthened the structures of civil society across borders. The generous mutual exchange between private initiatives and civic activists supported by Iryna Olshanska contributed to the popularisation of Ukrainian art in the world, particularly in Australia, America, Argentina, Brazil, and Poland.

The exhibition is composed of objects from the private collection of Iryna Olshanska and Volodymyr Stasenko.

Author and curator of the project: Volodymyr STASENKO
Organiser: Association of Lviv Artists
Scientific advisers: Halyna STELMASHCHUK, Mykhailo SELIVACHOV, Zenovia KHANAS
Project support: National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Andriy Sheptytskyi National Museum in Lviv, Olena Kulchytska Art Memorial Museum, Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna", Museum of Arts of Prykarpattia, Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Lviv Regional Branch of the Union of Designers of Ukraine, Lviv National Academy of Arts, Kosiv State Institute of Decorative Arts.

We sincerely invite you to the opening of the exhibition!