Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema Festival, August 23-25

This festival will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center in conjunction with the currently running exhibit, Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930. It will feature some of the best Ukrainian films produced in the last five years. Click here for more information and to learn how to buy tickets.

CROSSROADS: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930

I was made aware of this exhibition through Friends of Ukraine, which is having a reunion of sorts this coming weekend, July 28 and 29. The first event on our agenda is to attend a reception at the Chicago Cultural Center in honor of the just recently opened exhibit of Ukrainian art. Here is more information, but I'll highlight a few of the reasons why you should try to stop by.

1. This is the first major exhibition of 20th Century Ukrainian art within the United States.

2. Many of these pieces have never been seen outside of Ukraine. Add to that the fact that these are 70 of the only 300 pieces of Ukrainian art from this time period believed to have survived the Soviet Union's distaste for the avant-garde.

3. One of the goals of Mr. Lobanov-Rostovsky, who helped put the exhibit together, is " to show an American audience the talent and unique nature of Ukrainian avant-garde art and to help understand that the artists are, indeed, Ukrainian, not Russian, a difference not always appreciated in the West."

4. This exhibition will only be in Chicago until October 15, 2006.

5. It's free!

Peace Corps Magazine Article Wins Association Award

This doesn't exactly relate to Ukraine, but for me, the Peace Corps and Ukraine will be forever inextricably connected.

I just learned in an e-mail that an article published last year in World View, Peace Corps' magazine, has received first place in the feature article category of the American Society of Association Executives & Center for Association Leadership’s 2006 Gold Circle Awards. The article, "Hlatikulu Journal", was written by Alyson Peel, a volunteer in Swaziland, and appeared in World View's issue on AIDS. Here is a link to the article, if you're interested.