Past Exhibitions

This exhibit of over 80 Rushnyky, Ukrainian icons, and related artifacts comes from the collection of Franklin Sciacca Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Hamilton College in NY. The exhibition explored Ukrainian culture through one of their most ancient and valued traditions. A Rushnyk is a long, rectangular, cloth that woven in one solid piece and adorned with bright, intricate, patterns that are recognized and admired worldwide.

Rushnyk are is steeped in tradition and faith, the shape of the cloth represents life’s journey and it is believed to be a median between the secular and the divine.  It is a ritual object that is used in ceremonies from birth to death. Newborns are immediately laid on a Rushnyk, the intricate wedding formalities utilizes several Rushnyky, they are displayed in the home, and are even sometimes used to lower coffins into the ground. The cloths are traditionally made by women who start at a very young age, today the cloths can be purchased and most are machine made using modern materials.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Franklin Sciacca is an associate professor of Russian language and literature, Eastern Slavic folklore and religion, as well as food studies, at Hamilton College (Clinton, New York). He has lectured extensively on Orthodox iconography and East Slavic folklore. He has contributed articles to Slavic Review, Folklorica (Journal of the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Folklore Association), Nabokov Almanac, and Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Sciacca’s ongoing research interests include the history of Pochayiv Monastery, the politics of religion in western Ukraine, and the ritual function of textiles (rushnyky) in Ukrainian folkways. He has been a faculty member at Hamilton College since 1984 and earned his doctorate from Columbia University. His dissertation was a study of the origin and development of the Cult of Borys and Hlib (Boris and Gleb), the first two canonized saints of medieval Rus’. He recently published a research paper, “The Icon of the Pochayiv Mother of God,” in the Museum of Russian Icons online Center for Icon Studies.