“Dream country” festival and its alley of craftsmen

Details

An international ethnic festival called “Dream Country” will take place in Kyiv, on “Spivoche Pole”, on the 25 and 26 of June. During the festival with its literature and musical programs, craftsmen from different parts of Ukraine will traditionally be waiting for you in the Alley of Craftsmen.

Specially for the festival, different masters have prepared new works in all possible areas of the Ukrainian traditional folk art, such as pottery, pysanka ornamenting, carving, weaving, glasswork, cooperage, beadwork, vytynanka cutting, weaving from straw, withe, pine roots; doll making and traditional dolls; Petrykivka and other decorative painting kinds, traditional musical instruments etc.

Geographical locations of the craftsmen coming to the Ukrainian capital are various: Poltava, Lviv, Rivne, Lughansk, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv regions; central Ukraine. Crimean Tatar craftsmen will certainly come to the festival, too. Also, a doll-maker from Canada will be present.

Each visitor will be able to find an item suitable for everyday life such as a bowl or a wedding rushnik, or simply a good present having Ukrainian appearance

Also, feel free to come to the MASTER-CLASSES HELD IN THE CHILDREN’S MEADOW AND IN THE ALLEY OF CRAFTSMEN.
Lessons in crafts will last from 12:00 till 18:00 during the two festival days.

Your child will be taught the following in the Children’s Meadow:

• Making traditional folk dolls from fabrics and hay;
• Weaving toys from straw;
• Baking eatable birds from dough;
• Cutting paper vytynankas.

Each visitor can gain some experience the following crafts in the Alley of Craftsmen:

• Weaving on a real ancient 100-year old loom;
• Making clay shapes on a potter’s wheel;
• Ornamenting Easter pysankas on hen’s eggs;
• Embroidering rushnyks in the Obukhiv region style;
• Making traditional Ukrainian folk musical instruments;
• Making wedding wreaths from paper and wood shavings (a special master-class led by a well-known master Nadiya Khimichenko);
• Making beads from hot glass and creating modernized traditional decorations from them;
• Working with a hammer together with experienced smiths.

A project called “A LARGE MOTANKA-DOLL traveling around the world” has prepared a special program for the visitors. In May, in Kyiv this project presented the largest motanka-doll in the world – 3 m 30 cm high. It is this colossal textile beauty that will dominate the hills of the Spivoche Pole in the lower parts of the Alley of the Craftsmen during the two festival days.

Also, in the frames of the project an exclusive Photo session with the doll will be organized for FAMILIES coming to the festival. The aim of this activity is to revive the tradition of family photographs, centenary examples of which can be found in different museum collections.

The condition for participation in this activity is as follows: each family should have a special visual distinction peculiar to the country, ethnic group or this particular family. It can be expressed by means of clothes, additional decorations, some family talismans descending from generation to generation etc. You will also have to make a brief description of this distinctive feature, family conception or whatever it is in several sentences and to tell about it to the organizers after your photo session. You are also welcome to bring old photographs of your family (the organizers will scan them on the spot) and a prepared description of your family history. Later, all these data will possibly go into a photo-catalogue – a modern family gallery – in the frames of the “Family holiday” project.

Vietnam representatives will also take part in the “Large motanka-doll” project. For the first time, together with the Ukrainian counterparts they will present their traditions through the applied art, folk music and songs, clothes and other household and decorative works in the frames of the “Dream Country” festival. There will be an installation of an exotic tent-pavilion having Eastern interior components and furniture of the color and style able to convey the feeling of the ancient Vietnamese culture and philosophy. Ethnical Vietnamese music and songs of local performers will contribute to the special atmosphere. The Vietnam Ambassador and the Vietnamese community are invited to the festival.

To obtain detailed information about the activities of the “Large motanka-doll” project:
Olexandra Nesterenko, tel.: +38 050 7524782, ben.duk25@gmail.com

Don’t miss your FAUVORITE ANNUAL ACTIVITIES:

• performance of different music bands from Ukraine and other counties; dancing lessons, entertainment, treating to different national dishes;
• evening Gala Concert on the Main musical stage;
• Book Maters’ Alley created by the largest Ukrainian publishing houses; it will stretch from the Ivan Gonchar Museum’s yard to the Alley of Craftsmen, and so on.

FEEL THE VARIETY OF THE TRADITIONAL ART WORLD WITH REAL CRAFTSMEN IN THEIR AREAS!

More information on the “Dream Country” festival web site (Ukr)