On 21 February, on the 136th birthday of the costume designer, actor, and artist Fedir Brazhnyk, the “Around Us. UA” NGO and the educational initiative “Centenary of the Medvyn Anti-Bolshevik Uprising” unveiled an exhibition “Brazhnyky – Masters of Ukrainian Clothing” and presented a similarly named booklet. The event took place in the Medvyn Public Library.
The curator of the exhibition, co-founder of the “Medvyn. The Uprising” educational initiative, Maryna Hohulia, a librarian and relative of Fedir Brazhnyk, Oksana Zubchevska, and local historian Petro Hohulia told about Fedir Brazhnyk. The villagers who knew Fedir’s wife Oleksandra from childhood also shared their memories of her, among them Nadiya Marushevska and Liubov Shevchenko.
During the presentation, a representative of the “Around Us. UA” NGO, Victoriia Oliynyk, spoke about and demonstrated a traditional women’s wedding costume recreated from an old photograph, a collection of traditional paraffin wreaths from our region, and elements of the clothing made by the NGO based on the exhibits of the Museum of the History of Bohuslav Region.
Finally, the organisers of the exhibition presented memorable gifts to the library institutions of the Medvyn community (books “Folk Calendar of Bohuslavshchyna” and booklets “Brazhnyks – Masters of Ukrainian Clothing”).
The organizers of the “Medvyn. Uprising” and “Around Us. UA” NGO would like to extend their sincere gratitude to all the participants of the event, as well as to the Medvyn Public Library and the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Medvyn Village Council for the warm atmosphere and the opportunity to celebrate Fedir Brazhnyk’s birthday and to showcase an exhibition about him for the first time in Ukraine.
The banner exhibition is available for public viewing in the lobby of the Medvyn House of Culture and will be on display for a month. The next presentation is scheduled for 26 March in Bila Tserkva city.
Photos by Mykola Vasylenko
