Peter and Doris Kule Pledge to Expand Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore at CIUS

From a Press Release

On Friday, December 14, 2007, the Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore (Kule Folklore Centre) in the Faculty of Arts, and the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), celebrated the support of long-time donors, Drs. Peter and Doris Kule with the unveiling of a portrait of the philanthropists. The event was held at the Timms Centre and commemorated a recent gift of $1 million to CIUS for the establishment of the “Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at CIUS.” During the event, the Kules also made a new $1 million pledge to the Kule Folklore Centre. The Faculty of Arts will match the pledge by establishing a new French Folklorist position.   The two Kule Centres will work together on selected projects, but the new centre at CIUS will focus on Ukrainian-Canadian history and literature, as opposed to Ukrainian folklore.

 Andriy Nahachewsky, Director of the Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore/Huculak Chair in Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography, was thrilled with the Kule’s support of the Centre’s expansion into other areas of Canadian folklore. “We started out as a Ukrainian-specific program, and we will always have that as our core strength, but we also see a real interest in exploring folklore generally. Folklore allows us to see our local experiences as very expressive, yet so connected to tradition at the same time. Throughout the campus, there are a number of professors whose research overlaps a great deal with folklore. We are excited about pulling together more and building on this strength.”

Nahachewsky expects the expansion to be popular with students. “We’ve been offering an undergraduate class in general folklore for over six years now, and it’s always packed. Folklore, the study of unofficial culture, connects with people in a very direct way.”

The Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore at the University of Alberta, the Sheptytsky Institute at the University of St. Paul (in Ottawa), the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre at Grant MacEwan College (in Edmonton), and most recently to the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, have all been beneficiaries of major donations by the Edmonton couple. The Kules have at the same time supported other post-secondary programs at the University of Alberta in Religious Studies, Business and Accounting.

In October 2007, Drs. Peter and Doris Kule were awarded a Shevchenko Medal by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in recognition of their contributions in promoting Ukrainian scholarship and education. As there are only a handful of individuals who have supported education in Canada on the scale of the Kules, they are in a very exclusive club of philanthropists.

For the past five years, Peter and Doris Kule have been ardent and dedicated supporters of Ukrainian folklore studies.  They had previously donated $3 million to the folklore program.  The monies established the Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography, currently occupied by Natalie Kononenko.  They have been used to support Folklorica, the Journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association, and the leading periodical in Slavic folklore.  The Kule Endowment has brought in visiting speakers from around the world, including Michael Taft, head of the Folklife Division of the United States Library of Congress, Lubow Wolynetz, the Folk Arts Curator of the Ukrainian Museum in New York, Oleksandra Britsyna, the former deputy director of the Rylsky Folklore Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Bohdan Klymasz, retired Ukrainian specialist at the Museum of Civilization, Mykhailo Koval, a kobzar from Ukraine, among others.  It has helped fund teaching materials for the Ukrainian Bilingual Program, already tested in the Edmonton schools and soon to be available across Canada.  The Kule Endowment supports the research and travel of graduate students and has attracted students from around the world, including Ukraine, the United States, and Turkey, in addition to Canada.  Kule monies have allowed the establishment of a new post-doctoral research position which should be filled next year.  Their funds, as well as monies from other folklore supporters including Erast Huculak and the Wasyl and Anna Kuryliw Family, have been used in the development of the “Ukrainian Weddings” exhibit featured at the 2007 Toronto Ukrainian Festival.  With the new pledge made by the Kules and the expansion into French folklore, the Kule Folklore Centre takes another step toward becoming the premier folklore program in Western Canada. 

Peter and Doris Kule have made a special effort to recognize that which is fundamental to spiritual well-being.  Their support of folklore is part of this effort.  They have sought to support that which so often gets overlooked and they seemed pleased with the event in their honour and proud of their efforts to promote folklore scholarship in Canada. 

For more information, visit The Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore at www.ukrfolk.ca

The University of Alberta in Edmonton is one of the top 100 teaching and research universities in the world serving some 37,000 students with more than 11,000 faculty and staff. Founded a century ago, the university has an annual budget in excess of $1 billion and attracts more than $480 million in external research funding. It offers close to 400 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in 18 faculties.