Bozena Hrycyna, a folk artist and community educator based in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario, has been awarded the annual REACH Mentorship/Residency for the Arts for 2025, a project of the Shevchenko Foundation in partnership with the Ihnatowycz Family Foundation.
Now in its seventh year, the REACH program, offering up to $30,000 in funding, calls on emerging Canadian artists to reach for their career dreams by seeking opportunities for mentorship, residency, internship, training, workshop, and research.
Ms. Hrycyna received $12,709 in REACH funding for intensive training in traditional Ukrainian straw weaving (solomopletinnya), an endangered cultural craft. She will study weaving techniques at Serfenta, a UNESCO-accredited NGO in Poland, followed by four weeks of direct mentorship with master artisan Maria Kravchuk in Ukraine.
When notified of the award, Ms. Hrycyna, who works with ritual forms including pysanky, textiles, and straw craft, said, “REACH funding will play a critical role in developing my skill working with these traditional forms, which are at risk of disappearing and little known in the diaspora.”
The REACH adjudication panel included Natalka Husar, a painter who draws on Ukrainian culture and history, the émigré experience, and her feminist concerns, and whose work is in Canada’s foremost museums including the AGO, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada; Simeon Rusnak, Director of Classical Programming at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, former longtime host of “Morning Light” on Winnipeg’s Classic 107, and an accomplished photographer; and Ted Woloshyn, popular radio (CFRB 1010) and television (CBC) broadcaster and host, a Juno-, ACTRA-, and Gemini-nominated media writer/host, a dedicated community fundraiser, and current host of the “Ted Woloshyn Podcast.”
Mr. Rusnak said, “Ms. Hrycyna’s longstanding involvement in organizing, developing, and promoting Ukrainian cultural engagement and awareness in Canada is most admirable. Through direct collaboration with skilled artists and artisans, she will be exposed to an intergenerational knowledge and technical expertise which she will then transmit to the broader diaspora upon her return to Canada.
Mr. Woloshyn said, “I felt Ms. Hrycyna’s passion and commitment when she spoke about mastering this rare and endangered craft, and how it is vital to keep Ukrainian arts from disappearing.”
Ms. Husar paid tribute to the REACH program, noting that “art has the power to create a space for reflection and a platform for conversation, and the REACH program offers an excellent opportunity to challenge and change existing narratives around cultural representation.”
The REACH Mentorship/Residency for the Arts was established for emerging artists who are 40 years of age or younger; have a connection to Ukrainian heritage through background, art, culture and/or language (with no requirement to be Ukrainian Canadian); and work actively within the Ukrainian arts community in Canada and/or worldwide. Applicants are required to have practised at a peer-recognized advanced career level for a minimum of two years in visual, literary, or performing arts, new media, or arts management.
Bohdana Bashuk
Executive Director, Shevchenko Foundation
www.reachmentorship.com
