Ukrainian Cultural Garden

Sculpture of Volodymyr the Great, Ukrainian Cultural Garden. 1940. (Photo from Cleveland State University Library Special Collections)

The original monument of Volodymyr the Great by Alexander Archipenko at Cleveland's Cultural Gardens. 2006. (Photo from Cleveland State University Library Special Collections)

Sculpture of Volodymyr the Great. Photo by Frank Aleksandrowicz, 1966 (Photo from Cleveland State University Library Special Collections)

The restored monument of Volodymyr the Great at Cleveland's Cultural Gardens. 2006.

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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Ukrainian Cultural Garden is a part of the complex of Cleveland Cultural Gardens located within Rockefeller Park along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. This 254 acre park was donated to his city in 1896 and was developed as a public park by the firm Frederick Law Olmsted, which also designed Central Park in New York City.

The Ukrainian Cultural Garden was established in 1939 as part of a unique cultural project in Cleveland, the Cultural Garden Federation. UZO (the Ukrainski Zlucheni Organizacii) paid for the architectural layout as well for the three sculptures in the garden. Mr. Malitsky, the president of UZO at the time with all the support of other UZO organizations organized the opening of the Garden with more than two hundred people attending.

In several courts of the Ukrainian Garden there were four sculptures: Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Volodymyr Velykyj, the work of world-renowned Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko, as well as the statue of Lesya Ukrainka, one of the most well known Ukrainian female poet, a work by another famous Ukrainian sculptor Chereshnuovsky. The statue of Lesya was donated by Souz Ukrainok Ameryky, Ohio branch. All sculptures were made in bronze and proudly donated by the United Ukrainian Organizations (UZO) to the city of Cleveland.

In the mid seventies a series of vandalism occurred in all gardens including the Ukrainian Garden as well. Statues of Taras Shevchenko and Volodymyr Velykyj were stolen. After that the authorities of the city of Cleveland took the bronze statue of Ivan Franko to the city storage. Only in 2001 the statue of Ivan Franko returned to the Ukrainian community after 3 years of negotiation with Cleveland City Hall (Mayor Michael White) and is now on display in the Ukrainian Museum-Archives. In the results of the negotiations two copies of the two busts of the Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko were made and reinstalled into the garden by the Ukrainian community on One World Day Day (2001) as a donation from UZO. Copies were made by well-known Ukrainian sculptor Evhen Prokopov and were paid by UZO.

Delegates of the Ukrainian Cultural Garden:

• Marie Popovich from 1970 (?) to 1999
• Lena Pogrebinsky from 1995 to present

Alternates:

• Lusia Lebid from 1995 to 2002
• Alex Pogrebinsky 2002 to present

Bronze bust of Taras Shevchenko

Created - 1940. Fiberglass copy - 2001.

Sculptor - Alexander Archipenko

Sponsored by the United Ukrainian Organizations of Cleveland

Statue of Lesya Ukrainka

Sculpture - Bronze

Base - Marble

Created - 1961

Sculptor - Mykhailo Chereshniovsky

Sponsored by Ukranian National Womens' League of America

DESCRIPTION: Larger than life striding portrait of poetess Larisa Kosach Kuitka; proper left hand reaches across her chest and clenches her shawl; proper right arm rests at her side.

Bronze bust of Ivan Franko

Created - 1940. Fiberglass copy - 2001.

Sculptor - Alexander Archipenko

Sponsored by the United Ukrainian Organizations of Cleveland

DESCRIPTION The sculpture depicts Ivan Franko's head, shoulders, and hands as he rests upon his arms leaning forward towards the viewer. The bust is highly textured. Ivan Franko, as the attached plaque reads, was the national poet of Ukraine. He lived from 1856 to 1916. He was a poet, folklorist, and patriot.

• History of Cultural Gardens of Cleveland CSU History Department's Crooked River Journal.
  • Ukrainian Cultural Garden
• Their Paths are Peace: the Story of Cleveland's Cultural Gardens (1954) by Clara Lederer :: from the Cleveland Memory Project
• Cleveland Memory - Cleveland State University Library