The best museums in the world are places where reflection informs and gives context to the present and, most importantly, the future.

The Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch was conceived in 1944 by a small group of Canadian women of Ukrainian heritage who understood the importance of reflection.

Seventy-six years ago, these women gathered in the building that was the temporary home of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto. With one embroidered sleeve remnant and $14.50 raised at a friend’s birthday celebration, a Museum was born. In the ensuing years, it would grow to serve the broader Ontario community as an invaluable place of study and reference.

As decades passed, the founders and the women that followed, often their daughters and grand-daughters, welcomed and became stewards of thousands of artefacts brought from the “old country” by various waves of immigration. Other items were produced here in a vibrant Ukrainian-Canadian community. The Museum had several names and several locations through the years but in 1981, with financial assistance from the community, the increasingly significant collection found a permanent home in the newly expanded St. Vladimir Institute on Spadina Avenue.

The backing of very generous Canadians of Ukrainian heritage and the continued support and encouragement of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Sport and community foundations have been essential for the Museum’s growth and development.

Today the Museum’s collection includes over 5,000 artefacts, each one accessioned, researched, photographed, maintained, exhibited and interpreted professionally by a dedicated group of volunteers. This group, too, understands the importance of reflection as well as the necessity to stay relevant and reflective of the people of Canada. In addition to the thirty plus exhibits the UMCOB has mounted since its inception, it also provides curriculum-based programs for schools and presents tours for children, youth and community groups as part of its outreach program.

We honour and celebrate the memories associated with each artefact donated and left in our care, and we dedicate our work to the founders of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch. We believe they would be proud of the Museum they established, which now houses cultural treasures and tells the story of Ukrainians in Canada and Ukraine’s place in the world.

The Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch is a proud member of both the Ontario Museums Association and the Canadian Museum Association.

Your much appreciated donation helps the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch continue to uphold its mandate to collect, preserve , exhibit and interpret those objects that best serve to illustrate Ukrainian heritage and its contribution to Canada.