Soyuzivka
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| Motto | There’s No Place like Soyuzivka |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1952 |
| Type | NGO |
| Legal status | Active |
| Purpose | Cultural |
| Location | |
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Region served
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Canada, United States of America |
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Official language
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English, Ukrainian |
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Parent organization
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Ukrainian National Association |
| Website | Soyuzivka website |
Soyuzivka, also known as Suzi-Q or The Q, is a Ukrainian cultural center located in the Town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, near Kerhonkson, New York in the Shawangunk Ridge area south of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Soyuzivka hosts children's heritage camps, workshops, seminars, festivals, concerts, dance recitals and art exhibits for those interested in learning about Ukraine and its culture.
Soyuzivka's mission is to promote, preserve and propagate Ukrainian culture. It seeks, with its programs, to instill pride in Ukrainian heritage among Ukrainian-American youth and to showcase Ukrainian culture to an American audience.
In 1952, The Ukrainian National Association, a fraternal organization established in 1894, purchased the property in response to the need of its growing Ukrainian community, for use as a cultural center for its members. Soyuzivka provided language workshops, heritage studies, festivals, concerts, dances, art exhibits and children's summer camps. It has been providing this service for over 50 years.
Soyuzivka thrived under the leadership of Walter Kwas, a great supporter of the arts, who dedicated his entire life to bettering Soyuzivka, and was the person responsible for inviting fine artists, musicians and dancers to exhibit, hold recitals and workshops at the resort during the summer months and during the holidays.
Kwas modeled the resort after the architecture of the Carpathian mountains, with the famous woodcarver, Cherniovsky embellishing the individual buildings that made up the premises. Each of these buildings were named after regions in Ukraine.
Many artists exhibited there over the years, including Slava Gerulak, Jacques Hnizdovsky, Lubomyr Hutsaliuk, Edward Kozak, Halyna Mazepa and others. Soyuzivka is home to many important works of art by the most famous of Ukrainian sculptors, who were commissioned to provide busts of the most famous Ukrainian literary, historic, political and religious figures. These include the busts of Lesia Ukrainka, poet; Taras Shevchenko, poet; Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, the first Ukrainian Cardinal; Rev. Hryhoriy Hrushka, the founding Editor of Svoboda, the first Ukrainian language newspaper in the US (established in 1893); and Hetman Ivan Mazepa, the legendary hetman of Ukraine in the 17th century. The most notable statue is that of Taras Shevchenko, donated by Alexander Archipenko. Edward Kozak's relief paintings of Ukrainian dancers adorn the Veselka Hall, where exhibitions and recitals are held.
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Wikipedia