On July 16, Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University hosted the presentation of the project Embroidery in the clothes of prominent Ukrainians. The project founder is a craftswoman Tetiana Zez, the curator – Maryna Oliinyk, and the museum coordinator – Oksana Konstantynivska.
The opening ceremony was attended by Anatolii Tsos, rector of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Iryna Konstankevych, a People's Deputy of Ukraine, a member of the Supervisory Board of the University, Yurii Hromyk, a vice-rector for academic work and recruitment, director of Lesya Ukrainka Museum Tetiana Danyliuk-Tereshchuk, the founder of the project Tetyana Zez and her team members, artists, representatives of the public, teachers, and other staff members of Lesya Ukrainka University.
In the beginning, Tetiana Danyliuk-Tereshchuk, the director of the Lesya Ukrainka Museum of our University and the event moderator took the floor. She said: “Today, we want to pay tribute and express our gratitude to the author of the idea and organizer of the project Embroidery in the clothes of outstanding Ukrainians Tetyana Zez and her wonderful team. Mrs. Tetiana has become an ideological friend of the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University and our museum owing to one specific story – the story of Olena Pchilka. Today, the focal Lesya Ukrainka Museum’s exhibit is the collar of Olha Petrivna Drahomanova-Kosach”.
Later, the rector of Lesya Ukrainka University, Anatolii Tsos, was invited to speak.
“Everything related to Olena Pchilka, Lesya Ukrainka, and all Drahomanov-Kosach’s family is extremely important for our University because we bear the name of the great poetess. What our philologists have done, I mean the complete academic collection of Lesya Ukrainka’s works, is a real feat, and now we have the opportunity to observe the development of another project that is extremely valuable for our society and culture. Our philologists are working on the complete collection of works by Olena Pchilka” – the rector said and wished those present fruitful work and Victory. He also handed over souvenirs.
In her speech, Iryna Konstankevich emphasized that our University actively popularizes the works of Lesya Ukrainka and the Kosaches’ family. She confirmed the ambitious goal of university philologists to publish the Complete Edition of Olena Pchilka’s works.
“We believe that the national Ukrainian pantheon would be incomplete without a new presentation of the name and creative work of Olena Pchilka. This is especially important now when there is a war, and this generation of people defends the idea of Ukraine and Ukrainianness. So, I thank you for being at the University today and for all you are doing”, said a People’s Deputy.
“Our prominent Ukrainians once identified themselves by wearing embroidered shirts and Ukrainian outfits. At that time, it was a kind of resistance, identification of oneself as a nation. In this way, our elite showed that they were Ukrainians. We decided to make such visualization and started with the Drahomanovs-Kosaches’ house,” said Tetiana Zez.
The craftswomen of ZETA atelier (founder Tetiana Zez) sewed and embroidered 30 shirts (belonging to Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, Mykhailo Starytskyi, Ivan Franko, Dmytro Yavornytskyi, Maksym Rylskyi, Maria Zankovetska, Mykola Sadovskyi, Stepan Bandera, and others) and decorated clothing items with embroidery from the Kosach, Skoropadskyi, Rylskyi, and other famous families. The originals of these items are kept in the collections of the Ukrainian museums in Kyiv, Lviv, Lutsk, Dnipro, Novograd-Volynskyi, and Kolodiazhne.
The Volyn section of the project is represented by modern fashionable collars, embroidered white on white, which were an indispensable accessory in the wardrobe of Olena Pchilka and her daughters. One of the collars belonging to O. P. Kosach is kept in the Lesya Ukrainka Museum of the University.
Information Policy Department
