Latest news with #UkrainianCulture
CTV News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
UFest brings Ukrainian culture to Borden Park
Ukrainian flags can be seen at UFest in Borden Park on May 31, 2025. (Darcy Seaton/CTV News Edmonton) Western Canada's largest Ukrainian festival set up in Borden Park on Saturday. The sixth-annual UFest runs until 11 p.m., featuring close to 1,200 local and national Ukrainian performers on the outdoor stage. 'It's definitely special, because we have a lot of newcomers that have come to Canada in the last few years and then a lot of them are here today, so it's really great for them to come and get a little taste of home,' said organizer Stephan Bociurkiw. 'And it's not just Ukrainians,' he added. 'Everyone is welcome here. We want to share our Ukrainian culture with everyone.' UFest 2025 Visitors can be seen at UFest in Borden Park on May 31, 2025. (Darcy Seaton/CTV News Edmonton) The festival is free to attend. Alongside music and dancing, visitors can find 16 food vendors, more than 30 artisan market vendors and a licensed bar selling wine, beer and cider. Anyone wanting a more hands-on experience could also take part in one of multiple cultural workshops, such as learning traditional bread techniques or how to make Ukrainian beaded necklaces. This year, UFest partnered with the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to collect donations to support programs for vulnerable Ukrainian children.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
GUNIA: Ukrainian Tradition Reimagined—Worn By Icons, Loved Worldwide
GUNIA Founders Maria Gavrilyuk and Natalia Kamenska. GUNIA takes it a step further, producing limited-edition clothing, jewelry, and homeware deeply rooted in traditional Ukrainian many luxury brands emphasize craftsmanship, Ukrainian label Founded in Kyiv in 2018 by Maria Gavrilyuk and Natalia Kamenska, GUNIA Project draws on extensive ethnographic research and folk traditions to revive and reinterpret artisanal techniques dating back to the 17th through 19th centuries. The brand has successfully brought nearly a dozen historical crafts back to life, including guta glassmaking, traditional mountain wool production, and complex embroidery methods. GUNIA's collections are as functional as they are artful—designed for modern living but steeped in cultural heritage. Each beautifully handcrafted, thoughtfully designed piece reflects the brand's mission to preserve and modernize disappearing crafts through exceptional design and a deep respect for Ukraine's artisanal history. The idea for GUNIA was born from the founders' shared disillusionment with the fast fashion industry. After meeting over a decade ago, Kamenska left her career in fashion and began volunteering at Kyiv's Ivan Honchar Museum, an institution dedicated to Ukrainian ethnography. Immersed in historical artifacts and traditional garments, she found new creative purpose, which ultimately led to the creation of GUNIA alongside Gavrilyuk. Gavrilyuk and Kamemska explained to me the roots of their brand's name GUNIA: 'We founded the GUNIA Project as a hobby, a pilot project to create a modern interpretation of the traditional Hutsul fur coat, known as the 'gunia'. Using natural sheep's wool and weaving the fabric by hand on traditional looms in the Carpathian Mountains, the coat was a labor of love. This project gave birth to the Gunia Project, and the first joint collection from both designers was a series of beautiful scarves. Our main goal has always been, and continues to be, creating pieces with meaning—not just producing for the sake of production.' The entrepreneurial young designers Gavrilyuk and Kamemska set out to revive forgotten Ukrainian artisanal techniques and creates timeless, handcrafted pieces that blend design innovation with deep ethnographic research. In their quest to create a foreword thinking, innovative fashion and homeware brand that brings Ukrainian cultural traditions into the 21stCentury, they travelled to remote Ukrainian villages, and worked hand-in-hand with local artisans who are often the last bearers of ancestral skills, to bring lost knowledge back to life. GUNIA Founders Maria Gavrilyuk and Natalia Kamenska. GUNIA has become something of a cultural ambassador of Ukraine and the unique contemporary designs which maintain respect for traditional Ukrainian craftsmanship have attracted the attention of an eclectic mix of dignitaries and celebrities, from the late Pope Francis and First Lady of Ukraine to Lily Collins and Kylie Jenner. I asked Gavrilyuk and Kamemska why they think the brand has such a broad appeal? 'We believe the appeal lies in the balance we've found between cultural depth and bold, contemporary design. While our work is rooted in Ukrainian traditions, symbols, and artisanal techniques, what we ultimately create is a modern, visually powerful design pieces speak to current aesthetics—they're creative, refined, and highly curated. The fact that celebrities and cultural figures from such diverse backgrounds choose our work shows that the themes we touch—heritage, identity, craftsmanship—are not only relevant, but desirable globally. These moments happen not because we chase celebrity, but because the product itself stands out. It's proof that design based on deep cultural meaning can be internationally competitive—not despite its roots, but because of them. That's the power of storytelling combined with contemporary creativity.' GUNIA is an eclectic brand encompassing fashion, jewellery and homeware. I ask the duo what their starting point was for the brand categories, and how they preserve traditional Ukrainian artisanal skills through the products. 'For us, the starting point was never a product category—it was a cultural vision. GUNIA is not a fashion brand in the traditional sense. It is a platform for preserving and reinterpreting Ukrainian heritage through contemporary design. We work with artisans who specialize in ancient crafts—embroidery, glassblowing, weaving—and reinterpret those techniques across many forms: garments, ceramics, jewelry, textiles. Our collections reflect the diversity of Ukrainian material culture, so we allow the craft itself to dictate the form, whether it becomes a coat, a goblet, or an earring. By embracing this multidisciplinary approach, we can tell fuller stories—about rituals, beliefs, identity - and show how craft can be a living, modern language. Through GUNIA the duo have revived ancient artisanal Ukrainian techniques including guta glassmaking, wool-making and embroidery. So how many artisans do they work with and how do they discover them? 'We currently work with over 40 artisans across Ukraine. Working with artisans is one of the most complex, rewarding, and meaningful parts of our work. It's not always easy—but it's always inspiring. We search for masters all over Ukraine, from remote mountain villages to family-run studios. For some, this is an artistic practice rooted in tradition. For others, it's a craft passed down through generations. Some are full-time professionals; others engage in it as part of daily rural life. We find them through every possible channel—recommendations from ethnographers, word of mouth, field expeditions, even community notice boards. We met Nataliya Kishchuk, a traditional weaver of Hutsul coats (the original 'gunia'), during an expedition. Others came to us through cultural researchers and friends. Every encounter is its own journey.' While GUNIA's collections revive and sustaining Ukrainian crafts and creativity, they also have a contemporary sensibility. What inspirations, cultural phenomena and art movements inspired them and contributed to the DNA of GUNIA? 'We are passionate admirers of Ukrainian folk art, painting, symbolism, and craft traditions. We deeply respect the visual language of our culture—its motifs, its materials, and its spiritual foundations. At the same time, we both come from a background in contemporary design and fashion, so we understand the relevance of time and the importance of aesthetic clarity. We never wanted to create nostalgic or folkloric reproductions—we wanted to create modern design objects with meaning. Our process is about translating traditional technologies into contemporary forms. We draw inspiration from history and ritual, but also from what is happening now—from art, from politics, from the emotional pulse of our we create stands at the intersection of old and new: a modern object shaped by the breath of tradition, and a cultural story reimagined for today.' Whilst the Ukrainian people endure stress and hardship due to the ongoing war, it seems vital that Ukrainian brands such as GUNIA continue to promote Ukrainian culture and provide an international platform for Ukrainian artistry and creativity. Do Gavrilyuk and Kamemska feel that celebrating and preserving creative and folkloric elements of Ukrainian culture is important, especially during a particularly difficult time of conflict for their country? 'Absolutely. In times of war, culture becomes both a refuge and a form of resistance. For us, creating beauty is not just a creative act—it's a political one. Every embroidered shirt, every handwoven textile, every blown-glass object is a testament to Ukraine's enduring identity and spirit. Through GUNIA, we aim to remind the world that Ukraine is not only a place of tragedy or conflict—it is a place of deep beauty, resilience, and creativity. Preserving and sharing our cultural heritage on the global stage is our way of contributing to that narrative. It is also our way of protecting knowledge. Many of the artisans we work with are still creating while air raid sirens go off. To honor their work is to honor the soul of the country.' Find out more about the GUNIA collection here.
CBC
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Vyshyvanka Day festivities in streets of Charlottetown to celebrate Ukrainian culture
Social Sharing Celebrations will kick off in Charlottetown this weekend for Vyshyvanka Day, which highlights Ukrainian heritage and culture. Tetiana Rymska, a UPEI business student and activist, said this is a somewhat new holiday. "Vyshyvanka is absolutely important, and everybody thinks that this is some sort of very old celebration, but it's not," she told CBC's Island Morning. "It is quite a recent celebration in Ukrainian history, and actually the girl who invented the celebration is still alive, so it's that recent." The festival, which lands on the third day of May, was created in 2006 by Lesia Voroniuk after she and some classmates wore traditional embroidered shirts, or vyshyvanka. The festival soon caught on with many Ukrainians. Rymska said this year's celebration is about bringing awareness to the destruction of Ukraine's cultural sites in the ongoing conflict against Russia. "We want to bring awareness to all the territories of Ukraine that are still under Russian occupation... and also all the destroyed Ukranian landmarks and historic sites." Celebrations will start at noon on Sunday, May 18 in front of Charlottetown City Hall. Participants will then walk down Quen Street carrying a large Ukrainian flag. "You should definitely show up if you like fancy clothing, because people are going to be very dressed up," Rymska said. "Some of my favourite parts of this event is just to walk around and look at what kind of vyshyvankas people are wearing." 'We cannot be erased' Rymska said that Ukrainians are fighting for their existence, and that makes these celebrations more important. "This year our vyshyvankas are so important because this is part of our culture that we carry on with us, that we wear every single day... as a huge symbol that we cannot be erased." Rymska has several family members still living in Ukraine. She recently visited her home country to do volunteer work, a time that she's reminded of often, even after returning to P.E.I.
