About Us
Our Purpose
UAST is a 501(c)(3) membership nonprofit serving Tucson, Arizona. Our purpose is to foster cultural heritage, create artistic expression, and deliver educational programs that enrich our community. We do this with live music, workshops, festivals like Tucson Meet Yourself, language and art classes, and food & folk traditions.
As a cultural bridge, we share Ukrainian history and values, highlight American‑Ukrainian connections, and offer opportunities for youth, families, and newcomers to engage. By celebrating heritage and building awareness, we aim to nurture understanding, joy, and compassionate action—locally and in solidarity with Ukraine.
Our History
From our earliest days, the Ukrainian-American Society of Tucson has worked to preserve living traditions and to serve our neighbors. We began by collecting family recipes and stories into a community Ukrainian cookbook, a project that helped newcomers and lifelong Tucsonans connect around food and memory. On campus and across the city we mounted exhibits on Ukraine—including a somber Chernobyl photo series reflecting on the 1986 nuclear disaster and its clean-up; a Holodomor remembrance exhibit that introduced audiences to the 1932–33 state-made famine in Soviet Ukraine; a Taras Shevchenko program with poetry and music; and regular shows of local Ukrainian artists that brought contemporary voices into dialogue with heritage.
As a civic, cultural organization we also show up when it matters. In 2015 our members gathered at the University of Arizona to protest the invasion and annexation of Crimea, and in 2022 we rallied downtown at Jácome Plaza (101 N. Stone Ave.) to stand with Ukraine and to support humanitarian relief.
Education runs through everything we do. Each year we host pysanky (Ukrainian egg-decorating) workshops, where participants learn the beeswax-resist method and the meanings of traditional symbols—an art recognized internationally as an element of Ukraine’s intangible cultural heritage. Families leave with a finished pysanka and a deeper understanding of the culture that created it.
We are a familiar presence at Tucson Meet Yourself, the region’s long-running folklife festival, where our booth offers live demonstrations, folk-art displays, and community-made baked goods alongside conversations about history, language, and song. The festival’s mission—celebrating culture and continuity in the public square—perfectly matches our own.
Beyond festivals and classes, we organize music and cultural programs at venues around Tucson, and we host community picnics and get-together, often up on Mt. Lemmon, so newcomers, students, and longtime neighbors can meet one another. We have held silent auctions and special events to fund humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, and our members have engaged elected officials and community leaders in support of cultural understanding and aid.
Across all these years, the thread is the same: using art, food, language, history, and hospitality to connect Tucson with Ukraine—and to turn learning into friendship, and friendship into service.
