The Statue of Volodymyr the Great is back to Ukrainian Garden
For more then thirty five years the Ukrainian Cultural Garden was missing
its sculptures, and now they are all back to their pedestals. When I started
volunteering in the garden, my dream was to see our garden like it was from
the very beginning, and part of it was to have all statues back. This work
took six years, but it was very interesting and rewording job.
Busts of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and statue of Volodymyr the Great
were made by the famous Ukrainian-American sculptor Oleksandr Archipenko
in late 1930s. All peaces were commissioned and fully paid by the Ukrainian
United Organizations of Greater Cleveland and presented to the city of Cleveland
as a gift in 1939.
In late 1960s two statues disappeared from the garden, and the remaining
Ivan Franko's bust was taken from the Garden by the City to the one of numerous
city storages. In 1995 I decided to find the bronze bust of Ivan Franko,
which took about 3 years. Now this bust is on the permanent display at the
Ukrainian Museum Archives in Tremont, Cleveland, Ohio.
All the statues in the garden are replicas of the originals made in new
technology fiberglass. We are very lucky to have all replicas made by another
Ukrainian American sculptor Evhen Prokopov. His works are well-known all
over the world and we are proud to have his works in our garden. But work
at the garden is not finished; next step is to return all plaques and missing
features.
Visit the Ukrainian Cultural Garden and see for yourself how beautiful
it looks with all the statues back. I also would like to thank the executive
board of UZO for the support and especially Mr. W. Liscynesky for his help.
If you have pictures of the Garden, please, contact UZO. Any photographs
will be very helpful for the future restoration.
Olena Pogrebinsky, delegate to the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation
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