Spreading Ukrainian Cheer at the Pearl S. Buck House
By Jill Marateck
It was by chance that one day in November 2009 Barbara Ozer, Executive Secretary to the President, decided to stop in at the Pearl S. Buck House, a National Historical Landmark in Bucks County. Curious to see the stone farmhouse where Nobel-prize winner and humanitarian Pearl S. Buck lived for forty years, she did not expect that her visit would have an impact on Manor. One visit turned into another however, when Ozer was invited back to see the Pearl S. Buck House’s Festival of Trees.
For the Festival, each room of the house is adorned with beautiful trees and intricately decorated by different organizations. When Curator Donna Rhodes extended the invitation to Ozer and Manor College to participate in the Festival, Ozer excitedly brought the news to Chrystyna Prokopovych, Curator of the Ukrainian Heritage Studies Center. “This might be something for us to do [Chrystyna]. What do you think?” Prokopovych recognized the great opportunity, but it was too late in the season to prepare an exhibit for the 2009 Festival. That spring, Ozer contacted Rhodes again and before long Manor was on its way to competing in the 32nd Annual Festival of Trees in 2010.
The first task that awaited Manor was to select a space in the house to decorate. After scouting out the rooms at the House, Ozer and Prokopovych submitted their top three choices. In July, the women were given their first choice, half of the main dining room. Once they had the room, it was time to decide how to fill it with decorations. “We knew we were doing Ukrainian [folk art] but not sure what [specifically],” admitted Prokopovych.
An unforeseen challenge presented itself in that, because the House is a National Historical Landmark, certain decorations including food and live plants were prohibited. “We have never decorated in a museum before. We were constantly reminded, ‘no live things!’” says Ozer. They had to be extremely mindful of their surroundings because, as Prokopovych said, “everything [in the house] is an artifact.” With all this in mind, Prokopovych and Ozer decided that their traditional Ukranian folk art exhibit would consist of completely handcrafted decorations including embroidery, beading, and hand-painted ornaments.
Prokopovych was allowed to take pictures and measurements of the dining room, but all preparations had to be done outside the house. Although most of the beading had been done ahead of time, Ozer and Prokopovych needed help with the remainder of the decorations. Prokopovych turned to the Manorly Bead Club and Brigade 88 of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. “Look, Manor has this great opportunity,” Prokopovych said to them, “I need help!” And help they did. “They were marvelous,” says Ozer in describing the support of the Manorly Bead Club and Brigade 88. In fact, Manorly Beading Club members Sophie Dubil, Joanna Matyka, and Halyna Church provided so many of their handmade ornaments, that they had none left to use on their trees at home! Chrisine Shwed, Irene Ciuk, Ulana Prociuk of Brigade 88, were also an instrumental help in making the ornaments and decorations.
When the time came to move the decorations to the House, they were given only a few hours to set up the display. “Every ornament was organized by hook,” says Prokopovych, and nearly three hours after they entered the room, the exhibit was complete. The room was full of embroidery, straw angels, icons painted on glass, Teddy Bears in Ukrainian costumes, and beaded ornaments. “The tree was covered with decorations,” gushed Ozer, “It was gorgeous.”
The Festival of Trees ran from November 16 to December 31, 2010 and had special candlelit tours December 10 to the 17. Visitors to the Festival of Trees were given a ballot to vote for their favorite exhibit. The competition was close, but Manor’s handcrafted decorations stole the hearts of the voters. After the ballots were counted, the Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania came away with third place, The Bucks County Free Libraries took second place, and Manor was awarded first place!
Ozer and Prokopovych were thrilled and could not wait to share the news with the Manor community. “A lot of love and devotion have gone into this [exhibit],” said Ozer. It was truly something for the Manor Community to be proud of during the holiday season. Unbeknownst to Ozer and Prokopovych, voting had closed earlier than they expected, before they had invited the Ukrainian community to visit the house and vote. This was the greatest testament to the exhibit’s success as Prokopovych laughingly said, “We won without the major Ukrainian vote.”
The Pearl S. Buck House invited Manor to participate again next year and their first place status gives them first choice of room to decorate. Rather than resting on their laurels, Ozer and Prokopovych are busy brainstorming ideas for the next exhibit. “We’ve already have some good ideas,” says Prokopovych, “next year will be bigger and better!”
