VOLUME 13 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

5:00 PM | UA THEATRE SALON | Witnessing War | RSVP

7PM | PANEL/FILM | Icelandic Punk History |RSVP

8PM | FILM | Not Dead Yet |RSVP

9PM | CONCERT | Cute | RSVP

10PM | CONCERT | FAIYAZ AND THE WASTED CHANCES | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | DJ Babs | RSVP

5 PM | UA THEATRE SALON | Witnessing War

Ukrainian plays since February 2022. Directed by Andrew Kushnir

An assemblage of short works written since the full scale invasion of February 2022 – Ukraine’s leading dramatists reaching out to us, as they make sense of a world shattered and reformed.

LIANNA MAKUCH is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist who has traveled several times to Ukraine to research and develop her plays Barvinok and Alina. She received a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction for her directorial debut, First Métis Man of Odesa, which has been seen on stages nationwide. Her work has taken her to the Stratford Festival, the Banff Centre, the Citadel Theatre, and MacEwan University. She has been honoured as one of UDonation International's 50 Canadian Fellows of Ukraine, received Ukrainian Canadian Congress Leadership Awards, and her theatre work has been referenced in the House of Commons.

ANDREW KUSHNIR is a Canadian playwright, director, performer, teacher and community arts worker based in Toronto. He is artistic director of Project: Humanity, a socially-engaged theatre company where much of his documentary theatre work is done. The inaugural recipient of the Shevchenko Foundation REACH artist residency, he was named one of ten Canadian Artists of the Year by the Globe and Mail in 2023. In 2024 he received the Dora Award for Outstanding Direction and the Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Director of a Play.

RSVP

7 PM | PANEL/FILM | JOSHUA CUZZO x BRANDON MORAN

Icelandic Punk History. Presented by WAVELENGTH.

A museum inside a former public toilet in Reykjavík. An aging punk. Buffalo filmmakers Brandon Moran and Joshua Cozzo present excerpts from their forthcoming documentary and a conversation on memory, music, and preserving punk against the odds.

BRANDON MORAN is a Buffalo-based cinematographer, director, and founder of Buffalo Above Films. His work spans documentary and commercial filmmaking, with a focus on character-driven stories and community-based projects.

JOSHUA COZZO is a Buffalo-based photographer, filmmaker, and founder of Memento Academy, an organization bringing photography education to students across New York. He has spent the past decade teaching high school in New York City.

RSVP

8PM | FILM | NOT DEAD YET (1984)

Toronto's punk underground. DIY venues. Basement shows. A raw portrait of a scene that helped define a generation. Not Dead Yet (1984) returns to the screen, presented by WAVELENGTH.

RSVP

9 PM | CONCERT | CUTE

Hamilton hardcore in the dark; presented by WAVELENGTH

Hamilton's industrial edge. Noise pushed to its limits. Hardcore that is as crushing as it is meditative.

CUTE is a Hamilton-based hardcore band shaped by the city's industrial landscape and records once considered unlistenable by their peers. Their music moves between crushing intensity and meditative restraint

RSVP

10 PM | CONCERT | FAIYAZ AND THE WASTED CHANCES

Migraine-inducing garage. Vintage guitars. Maximum volume. Toronto trio Faiyaz and the Wasted Chances bring blistering punk energy underground.

FAIYAZ AND THE WASTED CHANCES are a Toronto-based garage punk trio blending vintage guitar tones, proto-punk energy, and a steadfast DIY ethos. Known for explosive live performances, they have become a fixture of Toronto's independent music community through grassroots organizing and relentless shows.

RSVP

11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | DJ BABS

From Blondie to Justice. Blur to The Rapture. Underworld and beyond. DJ Babs closes the night with an all-vinyl journey through decades of underground dance floors.

DJ BABS has been collecting vinyl since childhood and has been DJing in Toronto since the late 1990s. A longtime resident at the Bovine Sex Club and co-host of the all-vinyl monthly Juicebox, her sets move effortlessly between New Wave, Post-Punk, Britpop, Indie Sleaze, Garage, Minimal Synth, and unexpected discoveries.

RSVP

VOLUME 12 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

5:00 PM | RESIDENCY | KRYVA KOSA | RSVP

7:00 PM | LIVE SOUNDTRACK | RUDY RAY x ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (LOUIS MALLE, 1958) | RSVP

9:00 PM | CONCERT | PUULUUP (ES) | RSVP

10:00 PM | CONCERT | KILLABEATMAKER (CO) | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | SHAUNT RAFFI | RSVP

5:30 PM | RESIDENCY | KRYVA KOSA

KRYVA KOSA is a collective of musicians and artists dedicated to sharing folk traditions from their diverse backgrounds. "Kryva Kosa" — meaning "crooked scythe" in Ukrainian — brings timeless village melodies from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan and Finno-Ugric cultures to life through music, dance and communal exchange. They've performed and taught at the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, Drom Taberna, Kosa Folk Arts Melanka, and recently completed a four-month residency at Hart House, UofT.

Open Rehearsals: A bi-weekly rehearsal open to everyone who wants to learn folk dance tunes from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan and Finno-Ugric cultures. Learning material available online beforehand. During rehearsals we play, sing and dance to folky tunes without extensive teaching — creating an enjoyable atmosphere and learning environment.

RSVP

7:30 PM | LIVE SOUNDTRACK | RUDY RAY x ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (LOUIS MALLE, 1958)

A recreation of the iconic pairing of Miles Davis' trumpet to this crime-noir classic in honour of his 100th birthday

RUDY RAY is a Toronto-based actor and trumpet player, and founder of Rudy Ray & Co, an artist collective that runs a program at Union Station every summer. An official recording trumpet player for the Wu-Tang Clan, Rudy trained first as a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto and takes a strong interest in the importance of mental health in the Black community. As an actor he has appeared on Netflix's Self-Made, Ginny and Georgia, Amazon Prime's American Gods, and Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley. His work with Tobi recently won two Juno Awards for Best Rap Song and Rap Album of the Year.

RSVP

9 PM | PUULUUP (ES)

Estonian zombie folk looping talharpa and vocals

Elegantly dressed gentlemen with gloriously deadpan sense of humour, playing the ancient Nordic string instrument talharpa — through effects pedals, weird choreography and made-up languages.

PUULUUP are elegantly dressed gentlemen with gloriously deadpan senses of humour, playing the ancient Nordic string instrument talharpa. They direct the vibrations of the talharpa's horsehair strings through effects using alternative bowing and rhythm techniques, pairing mellow sighs with electronically amplified echoes, knocks, creaks and crackles. Their lyrics combine many languages alongside Puuluup's own made-up language — mostly abstract and open to interpretation — seasoned with weird choreography. Puuluup has performed in around 40 countries, received dozens of awards, and made it to the Eurovision Song Contest finals.

RSVP

10 PM | KILLABEATMAKER (CO)

The only Toronto performance from Colombia's ethno-electronic trio blending Indigenous traditions, Afrobeat, Amapiano, and cumbia. Colombian ancestral rhythms. Afrobeat, Amapiano, cumbia, and electronics. One Toronto stop between the summer festival circuit.

KILLABEATMAKER is a Colombian ethno-electronic trio blending Afrobeat, Amapiano, cumbia, and Indigenous Colombian musical traditions through percussion, gaita, beatboxing, rap, live vocals, and electronic production. Following appearances at major festivals and showcases across Europe and the Americas, the band arrives at INSTITUT for its only Toronto performance of the tour.

RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | SHAUNT RAFFI

Armenian folk, desert blues, ethio jazz

Late night vinyl from a Toronto curator rooted in Armenian and South West Asian and North African sounds — expect the unexpected.

SHAUNT RAFFI is an Armenian music curator, DJ and producer based in Toronto. He is the curator of Tapestry Jam, a monthly improvised music series, and the host of Sonic Salon, a program exploring boundary-pushing sounds. As the founder of Antikka, The Oud & the Fuzz, and Tapestry, Raffi has long built environments where artistry and community intertwine — rooted in a commitment to Armenian, South West Asian and North African cultures while fostering collaboration and experimentation.

RSVP

Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada and Ukrainian Canadian Research & Documentation Centre present

"Ukrainian news / my dead father orders me / to pay attention": українська література Австралії в роках 1948-2025

Date/location:
14 липня 2026 р. - 7:00 вечора
В приміщенні Українсько-Канадського Дослідчо-Документаційного Центру,
620 Spadina Ave., Toronto

Speaker bio:
Доповідач: Марко Павлишин

– професор-емерит з українознавства в Університеті ім. Монаша (Мельбурн, Австралія). Його наукова спеціалізація — класична й модерна українська література. Серед його публікацій – "Ukrainian Literature: A Wartime Guide for Anglophone Readers" (Cambridge UP, 2025), книги «Ольга Кобилянська: інтерпретації» (Харків, 2008) та «Канон та іконостас» (Київ, 1997), а також багато наукових статей, розділів та редагованих і співредагованих книг. Марко Павлишин є членом Австралійської академії гуманітарних наук та міжнародним членом Національної академії наук України.

VOLUME 11 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

5:00 PM | PANEL | TANGO, FEVER, PAINT — NATALKA HUSAR x OKSANA HAWRYLAK | RSVP

7:00 PM | CONCERT | TOLEDANO (NS) |RSVP

9:00 PM | CONCERT | PAJAROS KILTROS (CL) | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JUANA GO-GÓ | RSVP

5:30 PM | PANEL | TANGO, FEVER, PAINT — NATALKA HUSAR x OKSANA HAWRYLAK

A conversation between SVI’s creative director and a Ukrainian-Canadian visual artist on distance, the ineffable, and circling the point.

NATALKA HUSAR was born in New Jersey in 1951 to Ukrainian immigrant parents and has been based in Toronto since 1973. Her work is represented in major public collections including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, where her painting Torn Heart (1994) is currently on display. Her ceramics are on permanent display at the Gardiner Museum. Her practice draws on Ukrainian culture and history, the émigré experience, and femininity. Most recently, It Takes Three to Tango (Rodovid, 2024) compiles over 550 illustrated letters between a young Husar and Lviv artist Ivan Ostafiychuk — a staged romance that evolved into a layered exchange blurring fiction and reality, offering a portrait of an era and the imagination as a bridge across borders.

***

OKSANA HAWRYLAK is the Creative Director of St. Volodymyr Institute, responsible for its artistic vision and co-conceiver of INSTITUT together with Mark Marczyk. She led the project from vision to reality — shaping the space, the identity, and the community that makes it possible. As part of the team behind SVI's broader development project, she is building a new Ukrainian Canadian cultural hub in Toronto. INSTITUT is both a chapter of that future and proof that it's already underway.

RSVP

7:30 PM | CONCERT | TOLEDANO (NS)

Moroccan-Sephardic cello-looping with intimate voice notes tracking a woman's journey through confusion, lust, grief, birth and death.

TOLEDANO is the immersive solo project of Moroccan-Canadian composer and multi-instrumentalist Blanche Israël, known for her award-winning collaborations with Jeremy Dutcher (JUNO Award, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Polaris Prize). Rooted in Judeo-Spanish languages and songs, the project reimagines ancestral melodies through cello, electronics, and archival voice recordings. Drawing on deeply personal recordings alongside voices from her family — including her 105-year-old grandmother and her young daughter — TOLEDANO unfolds as a meditation on love, autonomy, motherhood, and the quiet labour of breaking cycles without severing lineage.

RSVP

9 PM | CONCERT x LIVE PAINTING | Parajos Kiltros x LunaAzul

Patagonian psych-folk duo. Instrumental fusion from the landscapes of Chilean Patagonia — violin, piano and button accordion in an immersive, elegant sound.

PAJAROS KILTROS is an instrumental fusion project inspired by the nature, beings and landscapes of the Chiloé Archipelago in Chilean Patagonia. Through the melodies of violin, piano and button accordion, they tell moving stories with an immersive, powerful and elegant sound that incorporates world music, folk, progressive rock and jazz. With three albums released, they have performed on important stages in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and China.

RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JUANA GO-GÓ

Eclectic vinyl-rooted selections of Latin and global sounds connecting memory, diaspora and movement, presented by Sonic Sancocho

Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement.

JUANA GO-GÓ is a Toronto-based DJ, vinyl selector and cultural curator known for crafting immersive dance floor experiences rooted in Latin and global sounds. Her sets move as travesías sonoras — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement — weaving together Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms into dynamic, genre-fluid sets. She is the co-founder of Sonic Sancocho, a hybrid platform and radio show that brings together live music, DJ culture and community ritual. Whether behind the decks or on the airwaves, Juana Go-Gó is driven by a belief in music as a tool for connection — bridging cultures, generations and geographies through rhythm and shared experience.

SONIC SANCOCHO is a Toronto-based cultural platform and radio show founded in 2024 by Olasconola & Juana Go-Gó, rooted in the spirit of Sancocho, a rich, shared Latin American stew. Like the dish, it's layered, collective, and made to bring people together — blending vinyl DJ culture, live performance, and global sounds into immersive, ritual-like gatherings.

RSVP

Andrea Kuzmich: songSCAPIN'

Every first Sat of the month, May through September, 7:30 PM at Tranzac

Mixing 25+ years of experience in Georgian and Ukrainian traditional polyphonic song with jazz and contemporary improvisation, Andrea Kuzmich (voice, guitar) teams up with some of Toronto's finest creative musicians for an elemental, groove-driven experience. In true folk fashion, expect the stage to dissolve — singing, clapping, dancing, joining in.

VOLUME 10 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

DOORS at 5 PM

7:30 PM | DANCE SOCIAL | KRYVA KOSA | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JANINA MARIE | RSVP

5PM | DANCE SOCIAL | KRYVA KOSA | RSVP

Open acoustic “rehearsal” of Balkan, Baltic & Slavic village folk for dance; simple songs to learn, easy listening for curious crowds.

A dance social of Balkan, Baltic & Slavic village folk hosted by INSTITUT's resident artists KRYVA KOSA .

KRYVA KOSA is a collective of musicians and artists dedicated to sharing folk traditions from their diverse backgrounds. "Kryva Kosa" — meaning "crooked scythe" in Ukrainian — brings timeless village melodies from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan and Finno-Ugric cultures to life through music, dance and communal exchange. They've performed and taught at the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, Drom Taberna, Kosa Folk Arts Melanka, and recently completed a four-month residency at Hart House, UofT.

Dance Socials: A community event with live music and taught dances for everyone who wishes to participate. A dance teacher will lead and guide you through the steps — no prior experience needed. The goal is to create a village folk dance experience and nurture living traditions. A great opportunity to socialize and engage with a diversity of cultures.

RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JANINA MARIE

A smoky, after-hours blend of Polish and Eastern European funk, disco and new wave cuts.

Funky soundscapes, Italo-boogie-disco and 90s-00s house from a Polish-Canadian record collector and underground fixture.

JANINA MARIE is a Polish-Canadian DJ and record collector and a fixture in Toronto's underground music scene. Known for gliding through an eclectic vinyl collection, her sets span funky soundscapes, Italo-boogie-disco and 90s-00s house. She has performed alongside Waajeed, Lefto Early Bird and Xica Soul, toured across Europe and the USA, and appeared on Brooklyn's The Lot Radio and Poland's Czworka Radio. She is also a founding member of Group Benefits, a multi-genre dance party series dedicated to amplifying women, queer and non-binary artists.

RSVP

Holiday Closure Notice

St. Volodymyr Institute will be closed July 1, 2026 for Canada Day.

We hope you have a festive and enjoyable day.

VOLUME 9 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

5:30 PM | UA THEATRE SALON | BOMB by Natalka Blok | RSVP

7:30 PM | LIVE SCORE | MAJD SUKAR x AL MUMMIA (SHADI ABDEL SALAM, 1969) | RSVP

9:30 PM | CONCERT | SONIC MIRAGE (UA) | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JUANA GO-GO | RSVP

5PM | UA THEATRE SALON | BOMB by Natalka Blok

Surreal dark comedy reading: Dasha, a Ukrainian activist with a bomb inside her that could save Ukraine; directed by Lianna Makuch.

A dramatic reading of a surreal dark comedy about Dasha, a Ukrainian activist with a bomb inside her that could save Ukraine. Directed by Lianna Makuch.

LIANNA MAKUCH is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist who has traveled several times to Ukraine to research and develop her plays Barvinok and Alina. She received a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction for her directorial debut, First Métis Man of Odesa, which has been seen on stages nationwide. Her work has taken her to the Stratford Festival, the Banff Centre, the Citadel Theatre, and MacEwan University. She has been honoured as one of UDonation International's 50 Canadian Fellows of Ukraine, received Ukrainian Canadian Congress Leadership Awards, and her theatre work has been referenced in the House of Commons.

***

ANDREW KUSHNIR is a Canadian playwright, director, performer, teacher and community arts worker based in Toronto. He is artistic director of Project: Humanity, a socially-engaged theatre company where much of his documentary theatre work is done. The inaugural recipient of the Shevchenko Foundation REACH artist residency, he was named one of ten Canadian Artists of the Year by the Globe and Mail in 2023. In 2024 he received the Dora Award for Outstanding Direction and the Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Director of a Play.

RSVP

7PM | LIVE SCORE | MAJD SUKAR x AL MUMMIA (SHADI ABDEL SALAM, 1969)

Ambient pedal-soaked clarinet colouring the Egyptian classic also known as The Night of Counting The Years

A live clarinet improvisation laid over one of Egyptian cinema's most haunting and visually arresting masterworks.

MAJD SUKAR is a Syrian-Canadian clarinetist whose fusion of Middle Eastern folk and classical music with jazz has made him a distinctive voice in the Toronto music scene. A soloist and improviser, he has performed with Robi Botos, Drew Jurecka and Andrew Downing, and has toured over 30 Canadian cities with the Canadian Arabic Orchestra since 2016. He is a member of Romani Jazz, Moneka Arabic Jazz, Fethi Nadjem North African Ensemble and Spiral Modes.

RSVP

9 PM | CONCERT | SONIC MIRAGE (UA)

Ukrainian folk traditions refracted through improvisation, drone, and electronic psych-groove. A closer look at the flute not as accompaniment, but as pulse, texture, and unstable signal.

SONIC MIRAGE is the solo project of Toronto-based flutist and improviser Artur Safronov (INSOMNIA). Moving between Ukrainian folk music, free improvisation, and contemporary electronic genres, the project blends acoustic performance with trance, psych-groove, and meditative repetition. Drawing from classical and early Baroque traditions as much as from underground electronic music, Safronov approaches the flute as a live, reactive instrument — something capable of carrying rhythm, atmosphere, and raw emotional movement simultaneously. Each set unfolds differently: layered, intuitive, and shaped entirely in the moment.

RSVP

11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JUANA GO-GO

Eclectic vinyl-rooted selections of Latin and global sounds connecting memory, diaspora and movement, presented by Sonic Sancocho

Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement.

JUANA GO-GÓ is a Toronto-based DJ, vinyl selector and cultural curator known for crafting immersive dance floor experiences rooted in Latin and global sounds. Her sets move as travesías sonoras — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement — weaving together Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms into dynamic, genre-fluid sets. She is the co-founder of Sonic Sancocho, a hybrid platform and radio show that brings together live music, DJ culture and community ritual. Whether behind the decks or on the airwaves, Juana Go-Gó is driven by a belief in music as a tool for connection — bridging cultures, generations and geographies through rhythm and shared experience.

SONIC SANCOCHO is a Toronto-based cultural platform and radio show founded in 2024 by Olasconola & Juana Go-Gó, rooted in the spirit of Sancocho, a rich, shared Latin American stew. Like the dish, it's layered, collective, and made to bring people together — blending vinyl DJ culture, live performance, and global sounds into immersive, ritual-like gatherings.

RSVP

TESTAMENT • ZAPOVIT
IHOR RODION DMYTRUK

June 21 – October 17, 2026

Testament – Zapovit is the first retrospective of Ihor Rodion Dmytruk (1938–2021), a Ukrainian Canadian artist whose life was shaped by war, displacement, and rebuilding. Born near Lviv, Ukraine and forced to flee Soviet persecution as a child, he later settled in Alberta, where he established a long career as both an artist and influential teacher.

This exhibition displays his work alongside many of the objects that inspired him, drawn from the permanent collection of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada – Ontario Branch. Together, these pieces explore post-WW2 Ukrainian immigration to Canada and aspects of Ukrainian culture that have endured despite Russian efforts to erase them.

Organized by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada (National), Testament – Zapovit premiered in 2024 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is presented in Toronto by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada – Ontario Branch.

Join us on Friday, June 19th, for the opening reception of In the Name of Life, a textile art exhibition by Kyiv-based artist Oksana Briukhovetska.

Working in textile collage, stitching together fabric and found cloth by hand, using craft skills passed down from her grandmother, Briukhovetska builds images that hold generations of women's experience. The works move between memory and the present: her grandmother's survival of the Second World War in the Volyn region, and the ongoing reality of Russia's war against Ukraine today.

The exhibition is dedicated to women, living and those who have passed, and to their often invisible but fundamental work in the name of life.

She served as a co-curator for the Ukrainian chapter of Secondary Archive, the platform for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe (2021–2024), and as curator at the Martin Roth Initiative residency for Ukrainian women artists (2024–2025), which culminated in the publication and exhibition Meaning after Loss (2025). In 2025, Oksana published Voices of Black Lives Matter, based on interviews conducted with Americans during the 2020–2021 protests. She lives and works in Kyiv.

Click the button below to RSVP for the reception:

VOLUME 8 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Schedule

5:30 PM | RESIDENCY | KRYVA KOSA | RSVP

7:30 PM | FILM | "EVE ON IVAN KUPALA" (YURI ILLIENKO, 1968) — BANNED UKRAINIAN POETIC CINEMA curated by PYLYP ILLIENKO | RSVP

9:30 PM | LIVE SCORE | ASTORIA x METROPOLIS (1927) | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | SHAUNT RAFFI | RSVP

Residency: KRYVA KOSA FOLK BAND

KRYVA KOSA is a collective of musicians and artists dedicated to sharing folk traditions from their diverse backgrounds. "Kryva Kosa" — meaning "crooked scythe" in Ukrainian — brings timeless village melodies from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan and Finno-Ugric cultures to life through music, dance and communal exchange. They've performed and taught at the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, Drom Taberna, Kosa Folk Arts Melanka, and recently completed a four-month residency at Hart House, UofT.

Open Rehearsals: A bi-weekly rehearsal open to everyone who wants to learn folk dance tunes from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan and Finno-Ugric cultures. Learning material available online beforehand. During rehearsals we play, sing and dance to folky tunes without extensive teaching — creating an enjoyable atmosphere and learning environment.

RSVP

FILM | "EVE ON IVAN KUPALA" (YURI ILLIENKO, 1968) — BANNED UKRAINIAN POETIC CINEMA curated by PYLYP ILLIENKO

A visually stunning metaphoric tale of folklore, surreal imagery and the forces a man unleashes in pursuit of wealth — banned Ukrainian Poetic Cinema curated by Pylyp Illienko.

Vol 8: A poor Cossack makes a pact with the devil and is gradually destroyed by the forces he unleashes. Drawing on folklore and surreal imagery, Yuri Illienko's Eve on Ivan Kupala is a masterwork of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema — banned on release, and presented tonight by the director's son.

RSVP

9:30 PM | LIVE SCORE | ASTORIA x METROPOLIS (1927)

A synth-driven, Piazzolla-tinged reimagining of a dystopian sci-fi world split between elite luxury above and a brutal underworld below

Set in a futuristic city divided between industrial labour and elite control, Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) remains one of the defining works of early science fiction cinema.
A mechanized dystopia where bodies become extensions of machines — and resistance emerges through fracture, rhythm, and repetition.

ASTORIA is a Toronto-based, producer-driven project working across tango, synth-driven composition, house, and Latin music.Built around the work of Jonathan Gejtman, the project draws from a background spanning film, television, and advertising — recontextualizing traditional forms through electronic production.Referencing the legacy of Astor Piazzolla while moving into a more synthetic, rhythm-forward language, ASTORIA treats composition as structure — something that can be looped, fractured, and rebuilt in real time.

RSVP

11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | SHAUNT RAFFI

Late night vinyl from a Toronto curator rooted in Armenian and South West Asian and North African sounds — expect the unexpected.

SHAUNT RAFFI is an Armenian music curator, DJ and producer based in Toronto. He is the curator of Tapestry Jam, a monthly improvised music series, and the host of Sonic Salon, a program exploring boundary-pushing sounds. As the founder of Antikka, The Oud & the Fuzz, and Tapestry, Raffi has long built environments where artistry and community intertwine — rooted in a commitment to Armenian, South West Asian and North African cultures while fostering collaboration and experimentation.

RSVP

VOLUME 7 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Stick around — the night goes deep. Panel at 7PM, live score at 9:30PM, vinyl til close. RSVP even though it's PWYC so we know who to expect.

Schedule

7 PM | PANEL | "LOOTING, PROVENANCE, AND THE ETHICS OF MUSEUM COLLECTIONS" GRAHAM BOWLEY x Alexandra Shkandrij | RSVP

9:30 PM | LIVE SCORE | LES PASSAGERS x LA VIE HEUREUSE DE LEOPOLD Z | RSVP

11:00 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | MIRA MELA | RSVP

Panel | Graham Bowley x Alexandra Shkandrij

GRAHAM BOWLEY is an investigative reporter at The New York Times originally from Leicester, UK. He holds a Master's in Economics from the University of Oxford and previously worked at the Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune before joining the Times. He is also the author of No Way Down: Life and Death on K2. At the Times, Bowley has become one of the leading journalists covering the art world, with a particular focus on looting, provenance, and the ethics of museum collections. His reporting spans seizures of looted antiquities from major institutions including the Met, the broader shift in how U.S. museums approach repatriation, how money launderers exploit the opacity of art sales, Nazi-era looting claims, and the politics of national museums and cultural institutions.

RSVP

Live Score | Les Passagers x La Vie Heureuse de Léopold Z

A Christmas Eve snowstorm through a Montreal plow driver's eyes — rescored live. Set over the course of a single winter day in Montreal, La Vie Heureuse de Léopold Z follows a snow removal worker caught between routine, responsibility, and quiet personal urgency. A portrait of labour, time, and the city under pressure — reimagined tonight through live score.

LES PASSAGERS is a Montreal-based project working across world music, jazz, electronic, and psychedelic rock. Their sound moves between groove and atmosphere — somewhere between Françoise Hardy, Herbie Hancock, and Tame Impala — grounded in improvisation and collective interplay. On stage, compositions expand, dissolve, and reconfigure in real time. Their work spans multiple releases and international touring, with recent projects focusing on live interpretation and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

RSVP

Vintage Vinyl | Mira Méla

Funk, soul, and disco with a touch of hip hop, jazz hop, and neo soul. Deep house, disco, soul and jazz on vinyl from a musician who plays by ear and selects by feel.

MIRA MÉLA is a jazz-trained pianist, singer, producer, arranger and DJ whose selections are informed by over a decade of performing across Canada, the US and Central America. From rocking crowds of thousands at Shambhala, regular appearances at both Toronto and Vancouver Jazz Festivals, to intimate rooftop DJ sets in Toronto's most sought after locations. Méla's selects pay reverence to the musical titans of Deep House, Jazz, Soul and Disco. Her unique sound is a fusion of UK Jazz house, contemporary vibes and classic boogie elements, with a strong emphasis on live instrumentation. She is currently recording her debut album — a neo-soul/jazz/boogie fusion project featuring award-winning musicians and her own original arrangements supported by live quintet horns and strings.

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Catch GANNA from Ukraine live with an epic concert and panel chat that's all about fresh sounds and stories.

Luminato and SVI present GANNA for an intimate evening at INSTITUT (SVI Institute).

The night begins at 6:30 PM with a conversation between GANNA and Mark Marczyk (Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Balaklava Blues, INSTITUT), exploring the intersections of folk, technology, war, and identity. At 7:30 PM, GANNA takes the stage for a solo live set.

"The talent—even magic—in musicology, composition, and vocals that flows through her in so many different ways is extraordinary" – London Jazz News (UK)

GANNA is a Ukrainian singer, composer, and producer based in Berlin. Since 2013 she has been researching and reimagining ancient folklore from her homeland. Today, she is considered "one of the most impressive singers and musicians on the European jazz and world music scene" (Ö1 Radio, Austria).

Her latest album HOME, by her ethno-jazz ensemble, was released in November 2022 on BERTHOLD records and was celebrated by the music press as "Album of the Year" (DLF Kultur radio, DE) and "Jazz Highlight of the Year" (BR radio, DE).

Her solo debut album KUPALA was released by BERTHOLD records in October 2023 and received widespread praise: "These are sounds of enchanting beauty" (BR-Klassik radio, DE). KUPALA was included in the "Best Ukrainian Albums 2023" lists by Slukh.Media and MIXMAG, and was named "New European Sound 2024" by LIVEUROPE.

Later, JOHNNY WESTCOAST takes the room deeper — a late-night journey through Ukrainian and global electronic sounds, moving between deep, melodic, and underground energy.

Andrea Kuzmich: songSCAPIN'

Every first Sat of the month, May through September, 7:30 PM at Tranzac

Mixing 25+ years of experience in Georgian and Ukrainian traditional polyphonic song with jazz and contemporary improvisation, Andrea Kuzmich (voice, guitar) teams up with some of Toronto's finest creative musicians for an elemental, groove-driven experience. In true folk fashion, expect the stage to dissolve — singing, clapping, dancing, joining in.

Carlos Gárate Where We Sing: Documenting a Folk Revival

May 8 – 29

Reception May 8
7pm-9pm‍ ‍

Since 2011, Carlos Gárate has documented Toronto’s Ukrainian art scene through an ongoing focus on the city’s folk art revival and the informal cultural spaces in which it takes place. Emerging alongside Toronto’s world music and folk revival scenes, the exhibition traces the Kosa Arts community (then Kosa Kolektiv) and the networks that form around it. The photographs move across church basements, cultural centres, house parties, neighbourhood bars, businesses, and public parks. Spanning more than fifteen years, the images foreground folk elements, gestures, and materials, presenting moments of gathering, performance, and shared cultural life as they unfold across the city.

Presented by Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, ART at SVI, CONTACT Photography Festival

The CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual city-wide festival that began in 1997. It encompasses exhibitions, public art installations, and programs that feature the work of local and international lens-based artists every May.

The Festival’s Core Program brings together exhibitions and public programs presented in partnership with museums, galleries, and artist-run centres throughout the GTA and beyond.

The Open Call Exhibitions extend the festival’s community through the inclusion of independently organized modes of publicly presenting lens based work across the city.

VOLUME 5 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Tonight: an open folk session rooted in village traditions, an evening of Greek taverna music, an intimate solo set from Toronto legend of button accordion , and vinyl til close.

PWYC. RSVP so we know who to expect.

Schedule

5 PM | RESIDENCY | KRYVA KOSA‍ | ‍RSVP

7 PM | CONCERT | Greek Trio — Dimitra Kahrimanidis, Ariane Morin, Naghmeh Farahmand | RSVP

9 PM | CONCERT | Tangi Lion | RSVP

11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | Janina Marie | RSVP

Residency | Kryva Kosa

Open acoustic rehearsal of Balkan, Baltic, and Slavic village folk — simple songs to learn, easy listening for the curious.

KRYVA KOSA is a collective of musicians and artists dedicated to sharing folk traditions from their diverse backgrounds. "Kryva Kosa" — meaning "crooked scythe" in Ukrainian — brings timeless village melodies from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan, and Finno-Ugric cultures to life through music, dance, and communal exchange. They have performed and taught at the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, Drom Taberna, Kosa Folk Arts Melanka, and recently completed a four-month residency at Hart House, UofT.

RSVP

Concert | Greek Trio

From Northern Greece to Thrace to Asia Minor — music meant for folk dancing, celebrations, and quieter moments of song shared around the table. Voices, laouto, saxophone, and percussion in the basement.

DIMITRA KAHRIMANIDIS is a singer, ethnomusicologist, and recent participant on The Voice Greece. Known for her versatility and deep roots in traditional Greek repertoire, she is a familiar presence within Greek communities across the GTA. She performs on voice and laouto.

ARIANE MORIN brings her ongoing research and studies in Greek and Turkish music, cultivated in Thessaloniki and Istanbul, alongside a strong background in Balkan music. She performs on saxophone.

NAGMEH FARAHMAND is an Iranian percussionist from a musical family, trained in Persian classical traditions. Based in Toronto, she is an active performer and teacher across a wide range of ensembles and collaborations.

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Concert | Tangi Lion

Intimate solo set from toronto legend of button accordion

One accordion. A thousand miles of stories.

Button accordion wizard, cultural nomad, and longtime fixture of Toronto’s folk underground, Tangi takes the stage solo for a rare close-up encounter. A veteran of countless dance floors, tavernas, festivals, and late-night sessions, he digs deep into the folk traditions that shaped him, weaving together melodies that feel ancient, restless, and alive.

TANGI LION is a Brittany-born multi-instrumentalist, producer, and dance teacher whose career spans Celtic, Balkan, Klezmer, Brazilian, and world music traditions. Based in Toronto, he has co-founded influential projects including Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Balfolk Toronto, and Moskitto Bar, while championing cultural exchange through performance, production, and community building. Today, he continues to celebrate Toronto’s diversity on local and international stages.

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Vintage Vinyl | Janina Marie

Eclectic vinyl selections that get hearts pumping and blood bubbling — funky soundscapes, Italo-boogie-disco, and 90s-00s house.

JANINA MARIE is a Polish-Canadian DJ, record collector, and fixture in Toronto's underground music scene. Her sets span funky soundscapes, Italo-boogie-disco, and 90s-00s house. She has performed alongside Waajeed, Lefto Early Bird, and Xica Soul, toured across Europe and the USA, and appeared on Brooklyn's The Lot Radio and Poland's Czworka Radio. She is also a founding member of Group Benefits, a multi-genre dance party series dedicated to amplifying the work of women, queer, and non-binary artists.

RSVP

Today is the last day to apply for the SUS Foundation Grant for preservation and advancement of education and of the Ukrainian culture in Canada.

Grant Application Information

Background

SUS Foundation of Canada maintains a registered charitable status with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). As such it must administer its affairs subject to both CRA policies/guidelines and its own by-laws.

SUS Foundation of Canada by-laws directive

To use or grant to other charitable or educational organizations such portion of the income of the Foundation as the Board of Directors may deem proper for the preservation and advancement of education and of the Ukrainian culture in Canada.

Please note:

• Under the SUS Foundation of Canada policies/by-laws capital works/projects do not qualify for a grant.

• Funding requests for new projects must be submitted prior to project start date and cannot be submitted after projects have started or have been completed.

Canada Revenue Agency directive

The charity (SUS Foundation of Canada) may make donations to other registered charities for programs that achieve the charitable purposes of the Foundation. The other registered charities report directly to CRA.

The charity may carry out its own programs directly or through its employees or volunteers or by its intermediaries (agents, contractors or partners).

Activities through intermediaries

When working through non-registered intermediaries, SUS Foundation of Canada must be able to demonstrate that it takes an active and fully controlling part in the project or program. It must be in a position at all times to be able to demonstrate to CRA that the resources are being utilized appropriately. The applicant must supply a budget, progress reports and on completion of the project; a final report including a financial statement. A written agreement with the intermediary is also strongly recommended.

Timeline:

Deadline for Grant Application: May 31, 2026

Grants Awarded: June 30, 2026

If you have any questions about your application please contact: grants@susfoundation.ca

Click here to go to the Application Submissions page

VOLUME 4 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Tonight: Bohdan Ihor Antonych wrote in a trance. So did Luka Kuplowsky. Tonight, that trance becomes a full band performance — jazz, synthesizer, drum machine, and cosmic balladry in the basement. Stay late: Holy Oak Family DJ keeps it going until 2 AM.

PWYC. RSVP so we know who to expect.

Schedule

LUKA KUPLOWSKY | RSVP

8:00 PM | EVAN J. CARTWRIGHT

8:30 PM | NORIKO YAMAMOTO

8:45 PM | LUKA KUPLOWSKY & BAND

HOLY OAK FAMILY DJ | RSVP

10 PM | Vintage vinyl

Concert | Luka Kuplowsky & Band

A full band celebration of Luka Kuplowsky's new album The Grass Grows, Antonych Grows — Ukrainian orphic poetry meets jazz, new age, and cosmic balladry.

LUKA KUPLOWSKY's latest release adapts the poetry of the orphic Ukrainian poet Bohdan Ihor Antonych (1909–1937) to song. Written in a self-described trance state over six days, the record moves from demo drum machines and synthesizers into a wide scope of jazz, new age, and cosmic balladry. Tonight he performs it with a full band featuring Thom Gill, Joseph Shabason, Evan Cartwright, Josh Cole, Felicity Williams, and Michael Davidson.

EVAN J. CARTWRIGHT is a singular songwriter combining existential lyrics with masterful musicianship. Steeped in jazz melodicism, his trumpet-like phrasing and contemporary composition present an eclectic art song.

NORIKO YAMAMOTO is a mime, dancer, choreographer, and visual artist. Trained in ballet, modern, and jazz dance in Japan and New York, and in mime under renowned artist Mamako Yoneyama, Noriko will perform a solo piece as well as collaborate with Luka Kuplowsky and the band.

RSVP

Vintage Vinyl | Holy Oak Family DJ

The band sets down their instruments. The records come out. Classic cuts from the singer-songwriters that inspired this scene, with video projections of archival filmmaking from Luka Kuplowsky.

HOLY OAK FAMILY DJ is Thom Gill and Luka Kuplowsky.

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Last Day of Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch’s exhibit Kosiv Bazaar: A Living Archive of the Carpathians.

Ukrainian Museum of Canada Ontario Branch
620 Spadina Avenue | Toronto (inside St.Volodymyr Institute)

In the west of Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains, there is a place where magic happens. Known as the Kosiv Bazaar, it is a place where imagination is sparked, creativity flows, and the world meets.

The Kosiv Bazaar is a unique cultural phenomenon — a theatre for visitors and an essential part of everyday life for the Hutsul people. Here, tradition, craft, art, and daily life intertwine. The bazaar offers folk crafts, artworks, antiques, and contemporary goods: clothing, furniture, tools, livestock, and even transportation. All of this exists in a colourful, vibrant, and seemingly chaotic — yet harmonious — environment.

It is also a place of encounters and conversations, where local dishes and homemade moonshine are shared, and, most importantly, news, stories, and rumours are exchanged. Visitors come not only to shop, but to see and be seen.

The exhibition presents a portion of the vast collection assembled over many years by Leonard Krawchuk. The collection represents Hutsulshchyna and the neighbouring regions of Pokuttia and Bukovyna.

VOLUME 3 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.

Tonight: a panel on historical truth and the literature of war, a rare screening of banned Ukrainian Poetic Cinema, a live improvised score laid over one of cinema's most visually ravishing masterworks, and vinyl til close.

PWYC. RSVP so we know who to expect.

5 PM | PANEL | MARCI SHORE x KAROLINA KOZIURA | "Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened" | RSVP

7 PM | FILM | "Well for the Thirsty" (d. Yuri Illienko) | Ukrainian Poetic Cinema curated by Pylyp Illienko | RSVP

9 PM | LIVE SCORE | Shaunt Raffi x The Colour of Pomegranates (Parajanov, 1969) | RSVP

11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | Shaunt Raffi | RSVP

PANEL | MARCI SHORE x KAROLINA KOZIURA

"NOTHING BAD HAS EVERY HAPPENED"

Facing the past with eyes wide open — what does it mean to grapple with historical truth at a time of war? Marci Shore and Karolina Koziura go deep on academia, poetry, and publishing in Ukraine, and take a closer look at Victoria Amelina's neighbourly essay.

MARCI SHORE is Chair in European Intellectual History at the Munk School for Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and formerly professor of history at Yale. She is the author of The Ukrainian Night, The Taste of Ashes, and Caviar and Ashes, and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times.

KAROLINA KOZIURA is a cultural and historical sociologist whose work centres on the legacies of violence, identity, and the politics of knowledge in Eastern Europe. Her current research focuses on the politics of hunger and the transnational contests surrounding the Great Ukrainian Famine.

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FILM | "WELL FOR THE THIRSTY" (1965)

Set in a nearly abandoned village, Well for the Thirsty follows an old man surrounded by memories of a disappearing world. One of the foundational works of the Ukrainian Poetic Cinema movement — banned on release, rarely screened — presented tonight by the son of its director.

PYLYP ILLIENKO is a Kyiv-born filmmaker and the son of director Yuri Illienko. He served as Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency from 2014 to 2019 and is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and the European Film Academy. He is presenting tonight's film as part of an ongoing effort to bring Ukrainian Poetic Cinema to new audiences.

RSVP

LIVE SCORE | SHAUNT RAFFI x THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES

Sergei Parajanov's The Colour of Pomegranates is less a narrative film than a waking dream: a sequence of painterly tableaux drawn from the life of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, rich with symbolic imagery, sacred music, and colour. Tonight, Shaunt Raffi gives it a new sonic body — a live improvised Ableton set with vintage samples.

RSVP

VINTAGE VINYL | SHAUNT RAFFI

Armenian folk, desert blues, ethio jazz. Threads of the evening may resurface. New ones will appear.

SHAUNT RAFFI is an Armenian music curator, DJ, and producer based in Toronto. He is the curator of Tapestry Jam, a monthly improvised music series, and the host of Sonic Salon. As the founder of Antikka, The Oud & the Fuzz, and Tapestry, Raffi has long built environments where artistry and community intertwine, rooted in Armenian, South West Asian, and North African cultures.

RSVP

Communities mark the day with cultural festivals, concerts, parades, workshops, fashion shows, school activities, and photo campaigns that showcase the beauty and diversity of Ukrainian embroidery traditions. Many cities illuminate landmarks in blue and yellow, while Ukrainian organizations, churches, and schools host educational events on regional embroidery styles and their history.

INSTITUT is a new underground cultural speakeasy living in the basement auditorium of St. Volodymyr Institute at 620 Spadina Avenue — a space that has always been there, right underneath, below generations of students, archivists, curators, and librarians. In its pilot phase (May–September 2026), it runs every Thursday from 5pm until late, featuring music, cinema, literature, and art. Ukrainian and beyond.

We are instituting the PWYC (pay-what-you-can) model — which basically means RSVP ASAP, because it's gonna fill up.

This is the first set in VOLUME 2 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave - around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door...

1. INSTITUT 002 residency: KRYVA KOSA FOLK BAND
   5 PM | PWYC | RSVP

2. INSTITUT 002 concert: TYMISH KOZNARSKY TRIO & CARLO MUSCAT
   7 PM | PWYC | RSVP

3. INSTITUT 002 vintage vinyl: MIRA MELA
   11 PM | PWYC

INSTITUT 002 residency: KRYVA KOSA FOLK BAND

Open acoustic “rehearsal” of Balkan, Baltic & Slavic village folk for dance; simple songs to learn, easy listening for curious types.

Traditional balkan, baltic, and slavic village folk music for dance in an open acoustic "rehearsal" format; easy to learn songs for curious musicians; easy to absorb listening for thirsty conversationalists.

KRYVA KOSA is a collective of musicians & artists who are here to share the folk music

traditions from their diverse backgrounds. They play live music, teach folk dances at upbeat public socials, and create interactive spaces for musical exchange and learning.

"Kryva Kosa" means "crooked scythe" in Ukrainian. Join them to experience timeless village folk melodies from Ukraine and neighbouring Slavic, Baltic, Balkan & Finno-Ugric cultures of Europe.

They have performed and taught at the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, Drom Taberna, Kosa Folk Arts Melanka and recently finished a four month residency at Hart House UofT.

INSTITUT 002 concert: TYMISH KOZNARSKY TRIO & CARLO MUSCAT

Malta-born saxophonist bridging the high-stakes creativity of contemporary, wartime Kyiv with European jazz; openning set by vibey jazz trio

One of them is a Canadian-born music school student figuring out the intersection of his passion and his roots. The other is a bit of an internationalist with European leanings and Latin fascination living on the front lines of the war from democracy and western values. Both are Ukrainian Jazz.

This is the bulk of the night in VOLUME 2 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave - around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door

TYMISH KOZNARSKY is an award-winning jazz saxophonist hailing from Toronto, Canada. He frequently performs at venues such as the Jazz Bistro, the Rex Jazz and Blues Bar, and the Jazz Room, both as a sideman and bandleader of the Tymish Koznarsky Quintet. Tymish has collaborated, recorded, and studied with internationally acclaimed artists, including Kirk Macdonald, Harold Mabern, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kiya Tabassian, Lorne Lofsky, Babak Amini, and Pat LaBarbera, while also being a featured soloist on Caity Gyorgy’s Juno award-winning album “Featuring and Juno nominated project “Lemon Tree” by Ale Nuñez. He is Currently one of many musicians that perform as a part of Davies Studios projects “Listening Room,” “Marmalade,” “Neo,” and “Blues.”

CARLO MUSCAT began his musical education at the age of eight. A few years later, he picked up the saxophone and started to discover a love for jazz music. During the early years of his career, he made a name for himself through local performances in Malta before beginning to collaborate with renowned local and international musicians. In 2013, he moved to Paris, France, where he had the opportunity to explore the scene and learn from other musicians, both by listening to and collaborating with them. The Parisian scene led to the recording of his first album, 'The Sound Catalogues', which stemmed from an earlier project at the 2012 Malta Jazz Festival. During this period, he continued working on new compositions for recordings and furthering his collaborations. Carlo has performed a number of concerts around Europe, including in Paris, London, Istanbul, Milan, Berlin, Kyiv, and Rotterdam. He now has five albums under his name as a leader and will be releasing his sixth album in 2023; he also appears on another five albums as a sideman. He describes his musical journey as a process that is ceaseless and expressive, allowing for freedom of interpretation. He is known for his fresh take on the genre and his unabashed use of improvisation, making the tunes of his compositions markedly his own.

INSTITUT 002 vintage vinyl: MIRA MELA

We’re excited to launch Reading Our Roots — the CIUS & SVI Library Book Club, a new space for thoughtful conversations around Ukrainian history, memory, and storytelling.

Our first meeting will be held in collaboration with HREC, coinciding with the release of the new free online course, “Famine as Genocide: The Holodomor in Ukraine,” available worldwide on Coursera.

We begin with Red Harvest by Michael Cherkas — a powerful graphic narrative that brings the history of the Holodomor to life in a deeply human and visually compelling form.

Join us for an evening with the author Michael Cherkas, in conversation with Karolina Koziura, one of the authors of the course, as we explore how history is told, remembered, and interpreted.

📍 SVI Library, 620 Spadina Ave
🗓 11 May 2026, 18:30

Copies of Red Harvest are now available for purchase at the SVI Library at a special price of $25 (cash only).

SVI Library hours:
Mon 9–4 | Tue 11–7 | Wed–Thu 9–5 | Fri 9–4

Carlos Gárate Where We Sing: Documenting a Folk Revival | Reception

Reception May 8
7pm-9pm‍ ‍

Since 2011, Carlos Gárate has documented Toronto’s Ukrainian art scene through an ongoing focus on the city’s folk art revival and the informal cultural spaces in which it takes place. Emerging alongside Toronto’s world music and folk revival scenes, the exhibition traces the Kosa Arts community (then Kosa Kolektiv) and the networks that form around it. The photographs move across church basements, cultural centres, house parties, neighbourhood bars, businesses, and public parks. Spanning more than fifteen years, the images foreground folk elements, gestures, and materials, presenting moments of gathering, performance, and shared cultural life as they unfold across the city.

The CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual city-wide festival that began in 1997. It encompasses exhibitions, public art installations, and programs that feature the work of local and international lens-based artists every May.

The Festival’s Core Program brings together exhibitions and public programs presented in partnership with museums, galleries, and artist-run centres throughout the GTA and beyond.

The Open Call Exhibitions extend the festival’s community through the inclusion of independently organized modes of publicly presenting lens based work across the city.

Carlos Gárate Where We Sing: Documenting a Folk Revival

May 8 – 29

Reception May 8
7pm-9pm‍ ‍

Since 2011, Carlos Gárate has documented Toronto’s Ukrainian art scene through an ongoing focus on the city’s folk art revival and the informal cultural spaces in which it takes place. Emerging alongside Toronto’s world music and folk revival scenes, the exhibition traces the Kosa Arts community (then Kosa Kolektiv) and the networks that form around it. The photographs move across church basements, cultural centres, house parties, neighbourhood bars, businesses, and public parks. Spanning more than fifteen years, the images foreground folk elements, gestures, and materials, presenting moments of gathering, performance, and shared cultural life as they unfold across the city.

Presented by Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, ART at SVI, CONTACT Photography Festival

The CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual city-wide festival that began in 1997. It encompasses exhibitions, public art installations, and programs that feature the work of local and international lens-based artists every May.

The Festival’s Core Program brings together exhibitions and public programs presented in partnership with museums, galleries, and artist-run centres throughout the GTA and beyond.

The Open Call Exhibitions extend the festival’s community through the inclusion of independently organized modes of publicly presenting lens based work across the city.

INSTITUT is a new underground cultural speakeasy living in the basement auditorium of St. Volodymyr Institute at 620 Spadina Avenue — a space that has always been there, right underneath, below generations of students, archivists, curators, and librarians. In its pilot phase (May–September 2026), it runs every Thursday from 5pm until late, featuring music, cinema, literature, and art. Ukrainian and beyond.

We are instituting the PWYC (pay-what-you-can) model — which basically means RSVP ASAP, because it's gonna fill up.

Consider this the first volume of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave - around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door...

1. INSTITUT 001 panel: UKRAINE'S CULTURAL FRONT ABROAD
   5 PM | PWYC | GET TICKETS

2. INSTITUT 001 concert: ORI SHALVA & PRESSGANG MUTINY
   7 PM | PWYC | GET TICKETS

3. INSTITUT 001 vintage vinyl: DJ McHI
   11 PM | PWYC | GET TICKETS

INSTITUT 001 panel: UKRAINE'S CULTURAL FRONT ABROAD

A conversation about diasporic activism in the arts led by the creators of THE DIVISION.

Consider this the first volume of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave - around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door...

Vol 1: Grab a drink and enjoy a high level conversation about identity politics from two Ukrainian-Canadian front line cultural activists. In a relaxed setting as opposed to a stuffy lecture hall.

***

ANDREW KUSHNIR is a Canadian playwright, director, performer, teacher, and community arts worker who calls Toronto home. He is artistic director of the socially-engaged theatre company Project: Humanity, where much of his documentary theatre work is done.

***

LIANNA MAKUCH is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist. She has traveled several times to Ukraine to research and develop her plays Barvinok and Alina, gaining awards and recognition from both the professional theatre and Ukrainian communities. Lianna received a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction for her for directorial debut, First Métis Man of Odesa, which has been seen on stages nationwide.

INSTITUT 001 concert: ORI SHALVA & PRESSGANG MUTINY

The album release of "Departure" from the city's beloved shanty crew (w DJ) set against a backdrop of traditional Georgian "supra" ballads

INSTITUT 001 vintage vinyl: DJ McHI

Classic reggae, dancehall and dub with some hints of cumbia.

Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch
and St. Volodymyr Institute present a Spring Market

Art • Timeless jewellery • Thoughtful gifts

Sat. May 2, 2026 | 10 AM–5 PM
Sun. May 3, 2026 | 12 PM–5 PM

Celebrate the beauty of spring at a curated market featuring:

• Original works by various artists, including a featured collection by Adele Kereliuk

• Vintage and contemporary jewellery and accessories

• Treasures for you and your home

• Vyshyvanky for Spring

• Flower arranging workshop

• Tea, coffee, sweets, and savoury café offerings

PERFECT TIMING FOR THOUGHTFUL MOTHER’S DAY GIFTING
– OR SIMPLY TO WELCOME THE SEASON

Live piano score to Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929) performed by composer Taras Luka at INSTITUT, St. Volodymyr Institute.

EXCLUSIVE LIVE CINEMA CONCERT

Ukrainian-Canadian composer and pianist Taras Luka performs an original piano score LIVE to the iconic Ukrainian avant-garde film Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929). It'll be the first in a series of exclusive and immersive live soundtrack experiences happening this summer at the St Volodymyr Institute's new underground speak-easy lounge INSTITUT (620 Spadina Ave.)The film was produced in Ukraine by All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration (VUFKU) and filmed in Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv, capturing the rhythm of modern city life through groundbreaking cinematic techniques.In the Sight & Sound critics’ poll, it was ranked among the top ten greatest films of all time and later named the greatest documentary film ever made.Created without actors, costumes, sets, or a traditional script, the film captures a single day in the life of a modern city. Vertov documents urban life through pure cinematic form, transforming everyday reality into a dynamic visual symphony through radical editing, rhythmic montage, and bold visual experimentation.During the screening, Luka performs the score live on stage, transforming the film into a powerful immersive audiovisual experience where music and image unfold together in real time.***Taras Luka is an award-winning composer with an international career across Europe and North America, known for his work in theatre, film, and large-scale concert productions. His work “Choral of Freedom” world premiered at Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Verdi (Italy) under conductor Oksana Lyniv as part of the international Concerto per la Pace initiative with the Italian Red Cross.Taras is the composer of major theatrical and musical productions, including Romeo & Juliet, Heart in Half, Buka, and In Captivity. His works have received national recognition in Ukraine

Man with a Movie Camera remains highly popular across Europe and is regularly screened by major institutions such as the British Film Institute, the British Council, and the Ukrainian Institute—highlighting its lasting influence on European film culture. screened by major institutions such as the British Film Institute, the British Council, and the Ukrainian Institute—highlighting its lasting influence on European film culture.

Video:
https://youtu.be/wYMbv0CjEqo?si=_tTeAtKPZHTWdcKJ

Join us for a creative flower arranging workshop, where we will work with seasonal blooms to create natural, garden-inspired arrangements.

During the workshop, Joanna will guide you through simple, intuitive techniques for arranging flowers, along with tips on choosing blooms from local growers or your neighbourhood corner market. We will also explore how to combine store-bought flowers with elements from your own garden, creating compositions that feel organic and personal.

Joanna’s approach is gentle and supportive, focusing on natural movement, balance, and personal expression rather than perfection. All materials are provided, and you will leave with your own arrangement to take home, along with the confidence to keep creating with what is available to you.

Registration is required to attend.
$95 per person.
2-hour session. (10:30 AM–12:30 PM or 2 - 4PM)
All materials included.

You will also take home a beautiful bouquet complete with a glass vase. Coffee, tea, and sweets will be provided during the workshop.

The flower arranging workshop is part of the Spring Market presented by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch and St. Volodymyr Institute — taking place May 2–3, 2026. Before or after the workshop, take some time to explore the market and discover beautiful art, jewellery, and thoughtful gifts.

Joanna Harshman is a floral designer inspired by the beauty of her childhood, spent between her grandfather’s garden and the lush meadows of the Sudety Mountains in Poland. She has had the privilege of working in some of Toronto’s most artistic and renowned flower shops, where she refined her craft and developed a keen eye for unique, expressive arrangements. Her work moves between organic, garden-inspired compositions and more distinctive, sculptural designs.

With a background in social psychology, Joanna enjoys weaving together creativity and human connection. Her workshops are rooted in a love of natural forms, creativity, and shared experience. She guides with an intuitive and relaxed approach, creating space for personal expression to unfold.

instagram: @mea.flora website: meaflora.ca