Local nonprofit hosts fair with food, music and crafts on Friday, concert performance of Chopin pieces and world premiere of two compositions about the war on Sunday

By Debora Gordon for Ashland.news

Local nonprofit Anima Mundi Productions will present a Ukrainian Cultural Fair Friday, Oct. 25, followed by a concert featuring Ukrainian pianist Nadia Shpachenko on Sunday, Oct. 27.

Ethan Gans-Morse and his wife, Tiziana DellaRovere, are co-founders and co-artistic directors of Anima Mundi, which also organizes the Heart of Humanity concert series, bringing world-class internationally renowned music to Ashland since 2019, focusing on a social or environmental challenge and including art and performers of the highest caliber. 

Denise Crosby, secretary for United for Ukraine Rogue Valley, explains “(The Cultural Fair) is an opportunity for the Ukrainian community to enjoy the artists  being brought here to Ashland; to continue to offer support and appreciation. I’m working with Kateryna Pryakhina, who is communicating with families. We will provide part of the cultural piece to the event; Ukrainian artisans who do beautiful hand stitching, and cook beautiful foods.” 

United for Ukraine ensures that the artisans who sell their goods will keep their payments. “The front table will ask for donations, noting specific areas of need. The artists have come here escaping a war. And they’ve brought their talents here, and we are the beneficiaries of that.” United for Ukraine, formed a few months after the war started, was created to help refugees who come to Ashland build a network, help with immigration and learn English.

Among those who will perform is Iryna Kudielina, a concert pianist who has studied with Dr. Alexander Tutunov, Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at Southern Oregon University. Dr. Tutunov reached out to United for Ukraine to help foster Kudielina’s career.  Lyudmila Sokol will display her fiber arts and Anaya Tatarenko will sell her chocolates at the event.

Gans-Morse invites fair attendees to also attend the performance on Sunday, Oct. 27, noting that there will be an opportunity to meet pianist Nadia Shpachenko, who teaches at Cal Poly Pomona.

Louise Pare is secretary and treasurer for ASAP, the Ashland-Sviatohirsk Aid Project, an organization under the umbrella of the Sister City Project. In Sister City projects, Pare explains,  “There must be mutual exchange between countries. It is not possible to do that with Ukraine at the moment, so the category currently is to be an aid project, connecting Ashland with Sviatohirsk starting over a year ago … We are in constant communication with the mayor there to find out what their needs are and to help with the restoration of Sviatohirsk.  This project was approved by the Ashland City Council and named as a second Sister City for Ashland. I hope that people will come through the experience by entering into Ukrainian culture, through music, food, crafts and art and the testimonies of those who have grown up in Ukrainian culture and come here as refugees.”

Pare also has been teaching a class at OLLI, “Understanding Ukrainian Culture Through the Lives of Women,” and has just started a new class, “Becoming a Refugee; the Stories of Four Ukrainian Women,” using the testimonies and stories of four Ukrainian women who live here now. The website offers opportunities to volunteer and/or donate funds.

Gans-Morse believes that Ashland has been the choice for the approximately 25 families with young children, totalling about 75 people, who have settled here because “It is smaller and has a good school system. Uniting for Ukraine encourages providing housing here in Ashland, so Ukrainians have come from all over Ukraine.”

Gans-Morse stresses that “This is not a political event; this an event about people; but is more about entering into Ukrainian culture. We’ve done opera, we’ve done recitals, we’ve done chamber music, we’ve done solo. And it is always organized around the community impact inside the concert hall and beyond and what that means is that we believe that when you bring people together, there is a shared humanity that comes about and that can be from the nature of the composer or the performer themselves.

“We’re thrilled that they’ve been graceful, enthusiastic, gracious collaborators to work with in producing this event.  It is a wonderful opportunity for our Ukrainian community to enjoy the art that’s being brought here to Ashland and to continue to support them as a community, that we see them and we support them and that they have the ability to participate.”

Ukrainian artisans presenting at the fair include painters, hand stitching, crafting, cooking, egg painting and photography. 

Ukrainian seamstress Luda is dedicated to supporting the culture within the community. She has beautiful costumes that are hand-stitched that are old, and she has new things that she has interpreted. Each county or province within Ukraine has its own unique stitch work and it expresses which community or which county it is from.

Lyudmila Sokol will also be displaying her fiber art at the event.

Everything to be presented during Sunday’s concert is directly or indirectly related to the situation in Ukraine, and will take a variety of forms, organizers say. The famous funeral march by Chopin who lived through the Polish revolution against Russian occupation will be featured, as well as a video of a violinist playing violin in a bomb shelter in Ukraine.

Shpachenko will also play two world premiere compositions about the war in Ukraine, her home country.

Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who recently moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at [email protected].

Oct. 21: Corrected name of Anima Mundi Productions.