Ukrainian Museum of Canada Ontario Branch

Testament ▪︎ Zapovit ▪︎ Ihor Rodion Dmytruk opens this Sunday, June 21. Please join us for an opening reception at 2:30pm.

🎫 Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/testament-zapovit-ihor-rodion-dmytruk-tickets-1991309685875

Ukrainian Heritage Will Not Be Erased.

At the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch, we are surrounded every day by the beauty and resilience of Ukrainian cultural heritage.

We see it in the careful stitches of embroidery and textiles, in carved wood, ceramics, and sacred objects carried across continents, oceans, and generations. These objects are more than artifacts. They are evidence of a people’s identity, faith, and enduring connection to homeland.

The recent russian attacks on Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Mystetskyi Arsenal, and the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studio are devastating. These places hold centuries of Ukrainian spiritual, artistic, and intellectual life, standing as pillars of cultural memory. Their destruction is not only a loss of buildings and collections, but a profound wound to Ukraine’s cultural legacy.

To bomb cultural landmarks is an act of erasure. It is an attempt to sever a people from their history, to silence their stories, and to deny the richness and continuity of Ukrainian culture.

But Ukrainian culture has never existed only within walls. For centuries, it has lived in the hands that create it and in the communities that continue to carry it forward. Here in Toronto, our work as a Ukrainian museum in the diaspora is one small part of this larger effort: caring for what has been entrusted to us, and keeping these stories present for future generations.

Ukrainian heritage is beautiful. It is sacred. It is alive. And it will not be erased.💙💛

⚠️Please excuse the mess in our gallery space as we prepare our next exhibition (opens June 21!).

In the meantime, our Boutique remains open during regular museum hours, offering a wonderful selection of books and cookbooks perfect for summer reading, vyshyvanky for summer events, and many Ukrainian-themed accessories and unique gift items.

NEW EXHIBITION

TESTAMENT • ZAPOVIT
IHOR RODION DMYTRUK
June 21 – October 17, 2026

Testament – Zapovit is the first retrospective of Ihor Rodion Dmytruk (1938–2021), a Ukrainian Canadian artist whose life was shaped by war, displacement, and rebuilding. Born near Lviv, Ukraine and forced to flee Soviet persecution as a child, he later settled in Alberta, where he established a long career as both an artist and influential teacher.

This exhibition displays his work alongside many of the objects that inspired him, drawn from the permanent collection of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada – Ontario Branch. Together, these pieces explore post-WW2 Ukrainian immigration to Canada and aspects of Ukrainian culture that have endured despite russian efforts to erase them.

Organized by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada (National), Testament – Zapovit premiered in 2024 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is presented in Toronto by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada – Ontario Branch.

OPENING RECEPTION Sunday June 21, 2:30pm
$20 • Youth 18 & under FREE
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/testament-zapovit-ihor-rodion-dmytruk-tickets-1991309685875

A vyshyvanka is more than an embroidered shirt — it is history you can wear. Each stitch carries memory, identity, and a shared cultural language shaped by region, village, and hand. On Vyshyvanka Day, we honour this living tradition and the enduring threads that connect generations. 💙💛

З днем вишиванки! Happy Vyshyvanka Day!

What's a prypynda? Find out at our hands-on workshop this weekend!

📍Saturday May 23, 1pm • 620 Spadina Avenue

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/prypynda-workshop-macrame-knot-work-apron-tickets-1988494172599
Choose red, white or black when you check out.

✨Curator's Tours!✨
Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience Kosiv Bazaar with guest curator Myroslava Boikiv. Drawing on her deep knowledge of Hutsul folk art and Carpathian traditions, Myroslava offers personal insight into the exhibition’s textiles, artisans, and cultural stories, illuminating the resilience and beauty of Ukrainian heritage.

Saturday May 9 • 1:00pm
Thursday May 14 • 6:30pm

By donation PWYC, please register in advance at:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/curators-tours-of-kosiv-bazaar-a-living-archive-of-the-carpathians-tickets-1988493956954

Ever wondered how twisted stitch embroidery is done? Come to our hands-on workshop tonight!

Only 3 spots left!!
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/twisted-stitch-embroidery-workshop-tickets-1988493321052