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Keywan, Ivan
Person · 1907-1992

Ivan Keywan was born on September 16, 1907 in the village of Karliv (now called Prutivka) in Western Ukraine. He began his art studies at the O. Novakivsky Art School in Lviv, and continued at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, from which he graduated in 1937. He also studied art history at the University of Warsaw and qualified as a teacher of art and art history. After his studies, he taught painting and drawing in Kolomea at the Ukrainian high school and technical school, while also pursuing an artistic career. As a member of several artists' associations, he exhibited his works, starting in 1933, in Warsaw, Lviv, different cities in Germany, Paris and Amsterdam. In 1943, he married Maria Adriana Krupska, a physican, in Kolomea (Kolomyia).

In 1944, he fled Western Ukraine in advance of the Soviet occupation. After the end of the war, he lived with his family in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Mittenwald, Bavaria, Germany. There he taught art and art history in the camp high school and at the People's University and produced many landscape paintings of the Alps. In 1949, Ivan Keywan, with his wife and two children, Orest and Zonia, immigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton, Alberta.

In Canada, Keywan continued his artistic work. A co-founder of the Ukrainian Artists Association of Canada (USOM = Українська спілка образотворчих мистців Канади), he participated in the association's exhibitions, as well as other exhibitions in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit and New York. Increasingly turning his attention to art history and criticism, he authored countless articles for the Ukrainian press and published four monographs on Ukrainian artists, including Taras Shevchenko, the Artist (1964). For this work, he was awarded the Shevchenko Medal, the highest form of recognition granted by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (KUK). He researched and wrote a two-volume history of Ukrainian art, of which only one section has been published in 1996 in Edmonton by Clio Editions titled Українські мистці поза Батьківщиною (Ukrainian Artists outside Ukraine). In 1967, Keywan received an honorary appointment as professor of art history at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome. Ivan Keywan died in Edmonton on September 18, 1992.

Evanishen, Danny
Person

Danny Evanishen is a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, a world traveller and a writer. He was born on February 17, 1945 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Danny graduated from the Nutana Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon in 1962, and then attended the University of Saskatchewan between 1962 and 1968 where he received degrees in both drama and education, while also being a writer and poet for the university’s student newspaper The Sheaf along with membership in other student organizations. Danny was also a member of a variety of cultural groups during this time, including the Mohyla Ukrainian Institute, CYMK (of which he was a president in 1964-65), and the dance group Yevshan and Lusia Pavlychenko's group, Saskatoon (1964-68). With Yevshan he danced in a Saskatchewan Jubilee movie in 1965, at Expo 67 several times, at the Canadian National Exhibition and for Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa in 1967. With Mary Tkachuk's youth choir he sang and played guitar in Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal at Expo 67, all in 1967.

Shortly after graduation, Danny began teaching English and art in Australia and New Zealand, but returned to Canada in 1971 to work as a Forest Officer in Yukon and British Columbia until 1978. During this time he briefly worked as an editor and publisher at a newspaper in Ross River, Yukon. In 1978, he became an owner and operator of a movie theatre and the manager of a freight co-operative in Salt Spring Island, BC. He also began pursuing freelance writing, which he continues to this day. From 1991 to 1993 Danny worked as a freelance forest fire suppression in BC. Since 1991, he has worked as a writer/publisher. Danny also worked at a mine in the Australian desert, fixed yachts on the Spanish island of Ibiza, repaired Volkswagens in Nigeria, tended bar in Canada, Spain and New Zealand, played guitar in a restaurant in Australia, drove a van in England, and crossed the Sahara in an old army truck.

Danny Evanishen's father stimulated his interest by translating some stories he found in an old Ukrainian book handed down by his father; his mother provided one story and encouraged him; and his niece and sister did the artwork. When Evanishen started to investigate, he discovered thousands of Ukrainian folktales. Danny started collecting stories in 1991. In 1994, he started going to Ukrainian and multiethnic festivals to collect stories there. He was interested in collecting stories of two types: Ukrainian folk tales and funny Ukrainian pioneer stories. With time, he started collected stories from descendants of pioneers. Danny would record verbal stories and would also invite people to send them to him by email, on paper, floppy disk, cassette, audio reel, fax, video, 8mm film. In 1994, he sent an announcement about collecting stories to many newspapers. If at the beginning of 1990s he would collect 2-3 stories per year, in 1999 he collected near to 40.

In 1993 he founded “Ethnic Enterprises, Publishing Division” to publish these stories, and his own writings around the character Vuiko Yurko which had received an award in a writers’ contest shortly after being published. Since then Ethnic Enterprises has published over twenty books containing stories of Danny’s own creation, and of Ukrainian folk tales he has collected and translated.

Tracy, Bill and Michelle
Family

Bill Tracy served as a planning officer for the Historic Sites Service of Alberta Culture for 28 years (from December 1980 to February 2009). During that time he had the opportunity to serve as the planner or advisor for a number of Provincial Historic sites and private developments including but not limited to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, Leitch Collieries Historic Sites, the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site, Fort George/Buckingham House Historic Site, Fort Dunvegan, Fort Victoria, Fort Chipewyan, and Notre Dame des Victoires (Lac la Biche Mission). Bill served as the project control officer for the development of Kalyna Country Ecomuseum, the world’s largest ecomuseum. Bill also previously worked as a student archaeologist on a second World Heritage Site, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

Michelle Tracy began her professional teaching career in Brochet, Manitoba, a fly-in Indigenous community where she taught grades 3 & 4 and 8 & 9 for two years. Beyond her initial assignment she also taught Grade 6 & 7 Native Art as well as a Work Experience Program which included a trapping program for the grade 8 & 9 boys. She concluded her teaching experience with 27 years as an instructor at Alberta Vocational College (later NorQuest College) in Edmonton, Alberta. While at NorQuest she developed a program to introduce the culture of Indigenous students enrolled in the Ben Calf Robe Program to immigrant students, including a visit to the Royal Alberta Museum.

Bill and Michelle have a passionate interest in Indigenous art and have focused their collecting and related activities there. However, they have also a keen interest in Ukrainian material culture driven by Michelle’s Ukrainian heritage. They have assembled a secondary collection of Ukrainian material with an emphasis on textiles and pottery.

The Tracys were featured in an article entitled “The Bill & Michelle Tracy Indigenous Art Collection” by Myrna Kostash in ACUA Vita, Alberta’s Ukrainian Arts and Culture Magazine (winter 2018-2019, Volume 24, Issue 2).

The Tracy collection of Indigenous art along with their supporting library and archives will be gifted to the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University. Portions of the collection have already been transferred.

JOINTLY CURATED EXHIBITIONS:

  • “In Their Footsteps; A Century of Aboriginal Footwear in the Canadian West”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; August 21 to October 21, 2018.
  • “Celebrating Connections, Weddings in Multicultural Alberta”, University of Alberta, Enterprise Square Galleries, Edmonton, Alberta; May 28 to August 1, 2015.
  • “Wus’kwīy / Waskway: From Berry Baskets to Souvenirs”. Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; January 27 to April 12, 2015.
  • “Angakkuq: Between Two Worlds, Spiritual and Mythological Figures in Inuit and Inuvialuit Art”, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; October 25, 2013 to February 16, 2014.
  • “Innujaq, Dolls of the Canadian Arctic”; Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; November 27, 2012 to April 28, 2013.
  • “Inuit Dolls of the Canadian Arctic”; Folklore Studies Association of Canada annual conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; May 14, 2011.

EXHIBITIONS TO WHICH OBJECTS FROM THE TRACY COLLECTION HAVE BEEN LOANED:

  • “Ceramic Multicultural Exhibition”, Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts, Edmonton, Alberta; scheduled for 2022.
  • “Beautiful Beadwork”, Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts, Edmonton, Alberta; September 6 to September 28, 2019.
  • “Patterns in Glass, Métis Designs in Beads”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; September 28, 2010 to June 1, 2011.
  • Arctic Birds: Real and Unreal”, Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; February 2, to May 20, 2009.
  • “From Our Past to Our Present; Ukrainian Collections from Edmonton Museums”. Ukrainian National Federation Hall, Edmonton, Alberta; November 7-9, 2008.
  • “Portraits of the North”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; February 26 to April 13, 2008.
  • “Inuit Art: A Moving Experience; Travel and Transportation in the Arctic”, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta; December 10, 2005 to February 26, 2006.
  • “Make History”. Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; October 13, 2005 to February 26, 2006.
  • “Sixties”. Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; November 17, 2001 to January 13, 2002.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS by WILLIAM TRACY:

  • 2005 In Time and Place: Master Plan for the Protection, Preservation, and Presentation of Alberta’s Past. Edmonton, Alberta: Alberta Community Development.
  • 1991 Collecting Contemporary Native Arts in the Boreal Forest of Western Canada. Arctic Anthropology 28(1): 101-109.
  • 1989 Native Craft Production in Brochet, Manitoba, 1978-80. in Out of the
    North: The Subarctic Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. 109-119. Bristol, Rhode Island: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.
  • 1979 A Reconsideration of the Archaeological Significance of the Role of the Middleman in the Fur Trade. American Antiquity 44: 594-595.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS by MICHELLE TRACY:

  • 1994 Photographic credit in Kalyna Country Ecomuseum. Alberta Museum Review 20(2): 25-27.
  • 1992 Photographic credit in Hiking the Historic Crowsnest Pass. Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books.
  • 1983 Book Review of Teaching Adults to Think (TAAT) by Irene D’Aoust, in Literacy 8(2).
  • 1980 Photographic credits in Hau, Kola! The Plains Indian Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology by Barbara Hail, Bristol, Rhode Island: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

SELECTED PAPERS JOINTLY PRESENTED:

  • Robertson Trading Company, Exploring a Private Collection. Native American Art Studies Association. Norman, Oklahoma 2009
  • The Curio Trade on the Northern Plains. Native American Art Studies Association. Scottsdale, Arizona, 2005

SELECTED PAPERS by WILLIAM TRACY:

  • Chair, Mission Architecture Symposium. Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. Yellowknife, N.W.T., 1992
  • Collecting Contemporary Native Art in the Boreal Forest of Western Canada. Out of the North: The Native Art and Material Culture of the Canadian and Alaskan North – Symposium and Exhibition. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island, 1989
  • Fort Chipewyan: An Ethno-historical Consideration. American Anthropological Association. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1979
  • Subsistence Strategies of Contemporary Inuit Artisans. Northeastern Anthropological Association. Middleton, Connecticut, 1976

SELECTED PAPERS by MICHELLE TRACY:

  • 2000 Department of Human Ecology Research Seminars, University of Alberta, Edmonton. “Continuing Traditions of White Caribou Hide Clothing as Practiced by Philomene Umpherville”.
  • 1992 Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) – Annual Conference, Yellowknife, N.W.T. Invited to read paper “Decorative Arts in Mission Architecture: A Case Study of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, Hobbema, Alberta”
  • 1984 Alberta Association for Adult Literacy – Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (AAAL – ATESL) Conference, Edmonton. “Thinking Training Workshop”.
  • 1984 Learning Assistance (LAC) Conference, Edmonton. “Teaching Adults Thinking Training”.

PUBLIC LECTURES JOINTLY PRESENTED:

  • “Collecting Indigenous Art in the Southwest” Strathcona Public Library Lecture, Sherwood Park, Alberta: September 2020 postponed due to Covid 19.
  • “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; November 2014.
  • “Collecting Navajo Folk Art”, Alberta Culture, Old St. Stephen’s College, Edmonton, Alberta; April 24, 2014.
  • “Speaking with Dolls”; Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; April 10, 2013.
  • “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; March 23, 2012.
  • “Collecting Native American Art: A Personal Journey Through Native America”, Folklore Luncheon Series, Peter & Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian & Canadian Folklore. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; January 13. 2012.
  • “Turquoise Jewelry from the American Southwest”, The Questors (University of Alberta Faculty Wives Group), Edmonton, Alberta; winter 2012.
  • “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; March 23, 2011.

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

  • Heritage Interpretation International (William Tracy)
    Founding Member (Charter Member # 166), 1987
    (Member of the Executive Board, 1995-1998)
    (By-Law Committee, 1997-1998)

  • Inuit Art Enthusiasts (William & Michelle Tracy)
    Founding Member (William Tracy)

  • Native American Arts Studies Association (William & Michelle Tracy)
    (2001 to present)

  • Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (William Tracy)
    (Editorial Committee, 1990 – 1999)
    (Nominating Committee, 1995-1996)

  • Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta
    William (Member of the Board of Directors, 2005 - 2021)
    Michelle (Member of the Board of Directors, 1999 - 2004)
    (Vice President, 2004 - 2008)
    (President, 2008 - 2009)

Telychko, Kost'
Person · 1907-1999

Kost’ Telychko was born in Ohiltsi village, Kharkiv region on May 27, 1907 to the family of Mykhailo and Tetiana Telychko (nee Tymchenko). In 1927 he graduated from the Institute of National Economy. In 1931, he was imprisoned, after getting out of jail, he managed to build a successful career.

By the end of WWII, Telychko lived in Austria, working on construction and Austrian farms. In 1945 he moved to Germany and lived first in Karsfeld DP camp; when the camp was closed in spring 1946, he moved to Mittenwald DP camp, Germany. While in Karsfeld, Telychko became a secretary of the newly founded Ukrainian National State Union organization (Український Нац. Державний Союз). After relocating to the Mittenwald camp, Telychko was elected as the organization's head and participated in all its conventions in 1946, 1947 and 1949.

Telychko arrived in Canada on June 10, 1949, and settled in Edmonton. The same year he became a Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church member. In September 1949, he also joined the Edmonton division of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and remained its member for 22 years. He was also a member of the Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association where in 1950 he served as elected secretary. Telychko worked towards the founding of the Committee for the Ukrainian National Council (Комітет Сприяння Українській Народній Раді), was its secretary for many years and, later, the head of the initiative.

On November 1956 Telychko initiated a radio broadcasts in Edmonton. By 1982 over 381 programs were aired through the CKUA Radio Network. Majority of the programs were written by Kost' Telychko.

He often was elected a convention delegate. On July 6, 1960, he delivered a main speech at the USRL/CYC Convention in Toronto. In the 1970s and 1980s, he also worked as an advisor and journalist, taught at the Ukrainian Saturday school (Рідна школа), was an author of radio broadcasts and newspaper articles. Kost’ Telychko was awarded the Shevchenko medal and many scrolls of honour. He died on April 23, 1999, in Edmonton, Alberta.

Yaremko, John
Person · 1892-1987

John Yaremko (Іван Яремко) was born in 1892 in Bridok village, Bukovyna, Austro-Hungary and passed away on February 5, 1987, in nursing home in Barrhead. Rose Kotyk, a daughter of Yaremko's nephew Mike Kotyk, wrote his biography which is part to the Yaremko and Kotyk collection.

Holynsky, Mychailo
Person · 1890-1973

Mykhailo Holynsky (January 2, 1890 - December 1, 1973) was born in Verbivtsi village, Halychyna (now Horodenkivskyi rayon, Ivano-Frankivska oblast). He graduated from the faculty of law at the University of Kamianets-Podilsky and as a person gifted with a unique voice started taking singing classes. Prof. Cieslaw Zaremba was his first tutor for two years in Lviv. After that Holynsky became a student of prof. Edoard Garbin of Milan, once a leading tenor of “La Scala” opera, who “polished Holynsky’s operatic studies.” In 1925, after four years of training, Holynsky made his debut in “Il Pagliacci,” in Lviv Opera, singing the part of Canio. With this performance he started a long period of tours and concerts in Europe that lasted till 1938. In 1927 he accepted an invitation to work at the Kharkiv State Opera and was premier tenor with the state opera houses in Berlin, Tiflis (now Tbilisi), Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lviv, Warsaw, and Moscow. He also performed with great success in concert tours at the Vienna’s concert hall “Konzerthaussal” and the Praha “Smetana Hall”.

In December 1838 Holynsky made his debut in Canada at the Eaton’s Auditorium, Toronto and then pursued his tour to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Montreal. He concluded his tour to North America with appearances in several operas in Philadelphia and New York city.

Holynsky planned to return to Ukraine however with the start of WWII he remained in Canada and lived in Toronto and Edmonton. Holynsky performed in several languages including German, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovac. He also knew French and English. He passed away on December 1, 1973 in Edmonton.

Lazarowich, Peter John
Person · 1900-1983

Peter John Lazarowich, Ukrainian Canadian lawyer and community leader was born in a village of Bereziv, Kolomyia povit (later Pechenizynskyi povit, Germ. Bezirk Peczeniżyn, Pol. Powiat Peczeniżyński), Eastern Halychyna, Austro-Hungary, on December 28, 1900. He came to Canada with his parents, siblings and other relatives in 1903.

He was raised on a farm in the Province of Saskatchewan, fifty miles south of Prince Albert. He completed his Public School education in his own community and then proceeded to Saskatoon where he completed High School and Teachers College. He taught school for several years in various parts of Saskatchewan, and then entered the University of Saskatchewan, Faculty of Arts, and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1927. That same year he married Miss Thelma Radyk, also a school teacher, and shortly afterward they moved to Edmonton, where they resided for the rest of their lives.

In 1931, Lazarowich graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree of L.L.C. and was admitted to the Bar of Alberta on October 15th, 1932. On the same day he left for Europe to take a postgraduate course in Slavonic History and Literature at the Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He remained there throughout the winter of 1932 and spring 1933 attending both the Charles University and Free Ukrainian University located there. After completing his courses, he travelled widely in Central Europe (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and Germany). During this trip he visited Halychyna. Afterwards, he also took a trip to England and Scotland and while there read a paper before the Royal Institute of International Affairs on conditions in Ukraine. Upon returning to Canada in the fall of 1933, he commenced the practice of law and has been practicing law until his retirement.

He was named Queen’s Council in 1948. He was the President of the Edmonton Bar Association and member of the executive of the Edmonton Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was active in the Liberal Party for many years and was a member of the executive of the Edmonton Liberal Association in various capacities. He was one of the Liberal candidates in the City of Edmonton in two Provincial elections.

In addition to those activities, he took an active part in the community life of Edmonton. He was a Chairman of the Edmonton Public Library Board, a President of the Scona Home and School Association, and during the years 1951-1952, he was a President of the Men’s Canadian Club of Edmonton.

In his Ukrainian-Canadian community, he was an influential individual in the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League / Союз Українців Самостійників (USRL/CYC) family organization, and one of the founders of USRL/CYC in 1927. From 1936 to 1940 Peter Lazarowich was the President of USRL/CYC National Executive. In 1958-1963 he was the National President of USRA/TYC (Товариство Українців Самостійників) and SUND (Союз Українських Народних Домів). He was a President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Edmonton (UCC), a member of the Order of St. Andrew and St. John’s Institute and a founding member of the Ukrainian Professional Businessmen’s Club of Edmonton.

In his church community he was a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John in Edmonton, legal representative for his cathedral and a member of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church (UGOC) of Canada Consistory Board from 1954 to 1970, choir conductor and a cathedral delegate at all the Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary Sobors of the UGOC of Canada.

As a result of his contributions to the Ukrainian community he received the following recognitions:
• Honorary member of St. John’s Cathedral
• Shevchenko medal from UCC National
• Honorary Certificate from the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada
• Honorary Certificate from the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League of Canada
• Honorary member of the Ukrainian Professional Businessmen’s Club of Edmonton.

Peter John Lazarowich passed away in Edmonton on May 15, 1983.

Luchkovich, Michael
Person · 1892-1973

Michael Luchkovich was born on November 13, 1892, in the mining town of Shamokin, Pennsylvania, USA. His father Ephraim and mother Maria migrated from the Lemko region of Ukraine to the USA in 1887. Unlike an older sister (he had three in all and one brother), he grew up with poor knowledge of Ukrainian until after his move to Canada in 1907. In the Autumn of that year, he enrolled in courses at Manitoba college, an affiliate at the University of Manitoba, as a grade 11 student. Later, he obtained a degree in political sciences at that university and in the process met with other 'firsts' in Canadian Ukrainian history: Jaroslaw William Arsenych, the first Ukrainian lawyer and judge; Orest Zerebko, the first Ukrainian Bachelor of Arts; Fred Hawryluk, the first Inspector of Schools; and Gregory Novak, the first Ukrainian doctor.

In 1917 he received a First Class Teacher's diploma from the Calgary Normal School and taught in districts heavily populated by Ukrainians in East-Central Alerta. In 1926 he was nominated as the United Farmers of Alberta candidate for the Vegreville federal riding and was elected by a substantial majority on September 14. He served two terms in Parliament (1926-1935) and joined the coterie of 'firsts' by becoming Canada's first federal MP of Ukrainian origin. The highlight of his parliamentary career came when he was appointed the only Canadian (and British) delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Congress in Bucharest in 1931. After his tenure in office, Luchkovich, who had begun learning Ukrainian by keeping a nite-nook of Ukrainian phrases and idioms, had mastered the language well enough to be able to turn his attention to translating. In this regard. he is best remembered for his translation of Illia Kiriak's classic novel "Sons of the Soil." Having settled down in Edmonton, Luchkovich remained very active in local Ukrainian community affairs. A firm believer in multiculturalism, he helped prepare a brief on behalf of the Edmonton Branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee to the Commission of Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1964. In 1965, he wrote his biography "A Ukrainian Canadian in Parliament: Memoirs of Michael Luchkovich" (Toronto: Ukrainian Canadian Research Foundation, 1965). Mr. Luchkovich died on April 21, 1973, and was survived by his wife Sophie (nee Nikiforuk), two sons, Myron Lusk and Denis, and a daughter Mrs. Carol Brown.

The biography is written by Serge Cipko:
Cipko, Serge. Michael Luchkovich Collection (Research Report N 49). Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta,1992.

Kuc, Chester and Luba
Family · 1931-2013 - Chester Kuc; 1930 - Luba Kuc (Yusypchuk)

Chester Kuc (April 15, 1931 - February 16, 2013) and Luba Kuc (May 29, 1930, nee Yusypchuk) were born in Edmonton. Their parents were active in the Ukrainian National Federation (UNO), participating in cultural activities such as choir and drama. Chester and Luba attended Ukrainian school, where they were encouraged to participate in cultural activities, children's choir, orchestra, plays, skits, and folk dancing. Both Chester and Luba were students of Vasyl Avramenko dancing school (Chester graduated in 1953).

Chester was a founder of "Shumka" and "Cheremosh" dancing ensembles and their director in 1958-1969 and 1969-1981, respectively. Chester also taught dancing schools throughout Edmonton - at UNO, where he had the largest dance school in Edmonton with 350 dancers, the St. John's Orthodox Cathedral, the St. Elia's Parish, the Holy Eucharist Parish, the St. Basil's Parish, the Ukrainian Catholic National Hall. Chester also was an alumnus of the Educational Summer School in Winnipeg (1947) organized by the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg. He worked at the Alberta Department of Ministry of Justice; was the head of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Alberta Branch (1991-1995); and the Cultural Director of the Ukrainian National Federation, also acted as their president for several years.

In 1948 Luba Kuc was a student of the Petro Mohyla Institute Ukrainian Studies Summer School in Saskatoon. Luba was an accomplished violinist and, later, the costume advisor for all of the dance schools taught by Chester. The couple even made trips to museums in Ukraine for research on Ukrainian costumes. Luba was a member of UNYF and the second President of the organization. Later on, she became a member of the Ukrainian Women's Organization of Canada (Організація Українок Канади ім. Ольги Басараб) and served as its President in 1976, 1977, and 1979, vice-President and treasurer in 1968 and 1978. In 2004 for her dedicated work Luba was presented the Hetman Award from UCC APC.

Luba and Chester were married on July 2, 1960, and had 2 daughters: Larysa and Daria.
Both Chester and Luba owned a large pysanky collection, hundreds of Ukrainian folk art items, including shirts, carved wood articles, burnt wood artifacts, ceramics, embroideries, and paintings. Artifacts from their collection have been featured in displays at Heritage Days, the Ukrainian Museum of Canada (Edmonton and Saskatoon Branches), the Ukrainian National Federation Hall, the Muttart Conservatory, the Centennial Ukrainian Celebrations display at the Agricom and the Shevchenko Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1992. Luba and Chester also held multiple embroidery and pysanka workshops.

To the history of Mr. Kuc's first name: "Chester Kuc was born to a Ukrainian father and a Polish mother who named him Czeslaw, a name that the hospital staff misheard as Chester. Later, his godfather suggested choosing a more Ukrainian name and Chester acquired the name of Myroslav."

Sources:

  1. The Edmonton Ukrainian Community Mourns the Loss of Chester Kuc. https://www.ualberta.ca/kule-folklore-centre/news/2013/february/chesterkuc.html
  2. Отнякіна О. М. "Куць Мирослав." Енциклопедія cучасної України: електронна версія [веб-сайт] / гол. редкол.: І.М. Дзюба, А.І. Жуковський, М.Г. Железняк та ін.; НАН України, НТШ. Київ: Інститут енциклопедичних досліджень НАН України, 2006. URL: http://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=52331
  3. Catalogue created by the Royal Alberta Museum for an exhibit of Chester's pysanky in 2006.
  4. In Service of Our Homeland. The Ukrainian Women's Organization of Canada 50th Anniversary (1956- 1980), part 2. Editors: Jaroslawa Zorych, Zynowy Knysh, Hanna Mazurenko. Toronto: Published by the Ukrainian Women's Organization of Canada, 1984.
  5. Організація Українок Канади ім. Ольги Басараб. "Люба Куць." Постер ОУК.
Koshetz, Alexander
Person · 1875-1944

Composer, arranger, conductor, ethnographer and educator Alexander Koshetz (b. 1875, Romashky, Ukraine, d. 1944, Winnipeg, Canada) was born into a priestly family and studied at the Kyiv Academy and the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute. Koshetz began conducting choirs while still a student and directed the choirs of the Lysenko Institute, Kyiv University and the Kyiv Conservatory. He also worked at Mykola Sadovky’s Ukrainian Theatre and the Kyiv Opera House. In 1919, at the directive of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, he became co-founder and chief conductor of the Ukrainian Republican Cappella, which toured Europe and the Americas with the aim of introducing the world to Ukraine. Kozhetz produced large numbers of a cappella choral arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. He also introduced American audiences to Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk.” Following the fall of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Koshetz settled in the United States. While living in the diaspora, he composed most of his liturgical music. From 1941 to 1944 he led annual choral conducting courses in Winnipeg. He also began developing a music curriculum for the Ukrainian diaspora, writing a history of Ukrainian choral music and produced a recording project on the Ukrainian choral tradition.

Iwanec, Parasia and Wasyl
Family · 1920-2020 - Parasia Iwanec; 1905-1979 - Wasyl Iwanec

Parasia Iwanec, née Krysa, was born on March 5, 1920, in the village of Piddubtsi (now Piddubne, Ukraine), Rawa Ruska District, Lviv Voivodeship, Peremyshl Diocese, Halychyna, Poland - passed away on December 19, 2020, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She completed nursing (1937) and business courses (1943) in Lviv. She married Wasyl Iwanec in 1946 and left for Canada from a Displaced Persons’ camp in 1948. While Dr. Iwanec worked as a physician in several cities, Mrs. Iwanec worked as a dental technician and seamstress but soon turned to art, to which she was devoted. In 1956 they settled in Edmonton.
From 1958 to 1962 Parasia studied painting privately from the well-known painter Yuliian (Julian) Butsmaniuk. From 1962 to 1968 she studied art at the University of Alberta, Department of Extension.

She was a member of the Edmonton Art Club and participated in all the Club’s exhibitions.
Parasia held over thirty individual and collective exhibits in many cities of Canada and other countries. The most significant exhibits were held at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich (München), the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, the Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation (KUMF) Gallery in Toronto, the Niagara Falls Art Gallery founded by Olha and Mykola Kolankiwsky, the St. Catharines Black Sea Hall, the Multicultural Heritage Centre in Stoney Plain, and at many organizations and cultural centres of Edmonton such as the Ukrainian Archives and Museum of Alberta, St. Josaphat Cathedral, St. Basil’s Cultural Centre, the Edmonton Community Hall, the Medical Women's Club etc. She also had exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, the USA and Nicosia, Greece.

In 1968 Parasia Iwanec took part in the embellishment of St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral where she painted the main icons of the altar screen (iconostasis). The iconostasis was originally designed by Yuliian Butsmaniuk who, before his death, managed to paint the icon of the Mother of God and create a draft of the Jesus Christ icon. The icons of Christ, St. Josaphat and St. Nicolas, as well as four evangelists, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and archdeacons were painted by Parasia Iwanec.
In the 1960s and 1970s, she painted 160 Ukrainian Churches of Alberta. Her artworks were recognized with a number of awards. She is also the author of the catalogue Ukrainian Churches of Alberta (Українські церкви Альберти, 1991), which features 153 of her works.

Wasyl Iwanec (March 21, 1905, village Hubynok (now in Poland), Rawa Ruska District, Peremyshl Diocese, Halychyna, the Austrian Empire - March 21, 1979, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) was born to a family of Hryhorii and Anna (nee Sawka) Iwanec. He was the seventh child in the family and had six sisters. He got medical education from the Jagiellonian University, Poland (1935) and worked as a doctor. In 1948 he immigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton. From 1949 to 1952 he was a doctor at Eldorado Mining in Port Radium, “Great Bear Lake”, NWT. In 1953 - 1971 medical doctor at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1977 he and his wife moved to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Member of the NTSh and the Canadian Medical Association in Edmonton.

(These biographies are written based on the materials of the Parasia and Wasyl Iwanec collection, UF2020.029)

Filenko, Taras
Person · born 1958

Author of the “Composers of the Ukrainian Diaspora” articles, Taras Filenko has degrees in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh (PhD, 1998) and Historical Musicology from the Ukrainian National Academy of Music (Kand. Nayk, 1989). From 1998 to the present, he has been on the faculty of the Duquesne University, City Music Center, Studio Piano, Core Musicianship. His publications include Світ Миколи Лисенка, UVAN, NY, 2009 (409 pp.), The World of Mykola Lysenko, Ukraine Millennium Foundation, Edmonton, 2001 (540 pp.), Yakiv Yatsenevych and His Time, in progress, UVAN, NY, (110pp.).