The Ukrainian Museum

The Museum’s purpose shall be to acquire, preserve, exhibit, and interpret articles of artistic, historic, and scientific value related to Ukrainian life and culture; to promote all aspects of Ukrainian culture; and to educate the public about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture.

Since 1976, The Ukrainian Museum has been a vital part of New York's cultural landscape — a showcase for Ukraine's rich artistic heritage and complex history, dedicated to preserving its folk art traditions while celebrating its unique contributions to 20th-century and contemporary art. Founded by the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, the genesis of the Museum's collections dates to 1933, when the UNWLA purchased 600 folk art items for the Ukrainian pavilion at the Chicago World's Fair — items that would form the nucleus of the collection decades later. Ukraine was then under Soviet and Polish rule; the pavilion was the only one at the Fair not backed by an independent national government. It was funded entirely by the Ukrainian community in the United States. Two million people visited. After World War II, when all of Ukraine fell under Soviet rule, the UNWLA resolved to establish a museum to house, preserve, and exhibit the folk art collection it had acquired. A nationwide fundraising campaign followed, and on October 3, 1976, the Museum opened in Manhattan's East Village — the neighborhood where generations of Ukrainian immigrants had settled. Today, the collection encompasses more than 8,000 folk art objects, 3,000 fine art works, and 30,000 archival items — one of the largest collections of Ukrainian cultural heritage outside Ukraine. When Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine opened in 2006, The New York Times noted that artists long attributed to Russian culture were, in fact, Ukrainian — a recognition that speaks to the Museum's longstanding commitment to restoring accurate cultural context to Ukrainian art. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, that mission has become more urgent than ever. That same year, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Museum launched SAFE, its global initiative supporting museums and cultural workers in Ukraine, and was recently recognized with a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.