Yara Art Group's Winter Festival of New Art, Music & Poetry Ukrainian Institute of America 2 East 79th Street at Fifth Avenue New York City Fri Jan 27 - 8PM opening of art exhibit with readings by writers, music & dance Sat Jan 28 - 2PM music workshop with Alla Zahaykevych from Kyiv                      8PM performances by Yara actors, Ensemble Hilka, Alla Zahaykevych & friends                        + party with Debutante Hour & food by Olesia Lew/Veselka Bowery Sun Jan 29 - 2PM Music in the Wood, a shadow puppet show by Watoku Ueno for children 6-106

On January 27-29, 2012, Yara Arts Group and the Ukrainian Institute of America will present Re-Imagine: Ourselves A Festival of New Art, Music, Performance, Poetry, and Video. The festival, which will include an art exhibit, readings by poets, performances by Yara actors, as well as music, will take place at the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 East 79th Street at Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Ukrainian Institute is a mansion that is protected as a contributing element of the Metropolitan Museum Historic District and designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Yara Arts Group has held festivals and events at the Ukrainian Institute for over twenty years. Celebrating its continued success in providing a forum for cross-cultural and cross-generational genre-bending arts, Yara announces its newest festival.

By Yara's invitation twenty artists -- have created new, exciting art and installations inspired by the theme Re-Imagine: Ourselves. They have considered what the theme means to them as individuals, as artists and as a community. The art exhibit is curated by Andrea Wenglowskyj and Virlana Tkacz and includes artists who previously took part in Yara's festivals such as: Roman Hrab, Petro Hrytsyk, Peter Ihnat, Olga Maryschuk, Margaret Morton, Anna Sydorenko/Serhiy Yakunin and Marybeth Ward, as well as many new ones such as Roberto Ekholm, June Kim, Sky Kim, Emeralda Kosmatopoulos, Karissa Lang, Soo Im Lee, Macacas Productions, David Maione, Serge Matsko, Christina Shmigel, Kateryna Svirgunenko and Hiba Schahbaz. A special feature this year is the focus on video art with brief works from artists such as Laura Arena, Lani Asuncion, Katya Grokhovsky, Maria Niro, Laurence Payot, Hidemi Takagi, Tahir Un and Ezra Wube, as well as Yara video artists: Volodymyr Klyuzko, Andrea Odezynska and Mikhail Shraga.

The art exhibit will open on Friday, January 27, at 8 PM with performances on the move. The audience will be guided through the three floors of the mansion into rooms which will fill with poetry and dance as they enter. Olena Jennings, Wanda Phipps, Candece Tarpley and Christina LillianTurczyn will read their own works, while Bob Holman performs with Julian Kytasty and Sophia Holman performs her piece with Tom Eliot. Other performers include cellist Paul Brantley, dancer Inka Juslin, and performance artist Teng Chao-Ming. Afterwards guests may enjoy a wine and cheese reception with the artists.

On Saturday afternoon January 28th at 2 PM Alla Zahaykevych from Kyiv will conduct a music workshop as part of the festival. You must preregister for the workshop with Yara yara.arts.group@gmail.com The art exhibit will be open to the general public Saturday and Sunday 2:00 to 5:00 PM.

During a special performance on Saturday January 28th at 8PM Yara actor will perform poetry by poets such as Oksana Lutsyshyna, Serhiy Zhadan, Oleh Lysheha and Kateryna Babkina in their signature style, interweaving the original text with its translation, the two languages entering into dialogue with each other. Hilka Ensemble will perform songs from the Chornobyl Songs Project and Ukraine's foremost electronic composer Alla Zahaykevych will perform her work. The evening will conclude with music by Marusia Sonevytsky's Debutante Hour. Then Chef Olesia Lew from Veselka Bowery will welcome the audience to taste her poetic re-imaginations of Ukrainian cuisine.

Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, Watoku Ueno will present his Music in the Wood, a shadow puppet show. The show, performed in English, will feature original Japanese shadow puppets in a story about a tree that sings. This beautiful puppet show has fascinated all its audiences, and is appropriate for children from 6 to 106.

Yara Arts Group is a resident company at the internationally acclaimed La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York. The group has created twenty-four original theatre pieces that celebrate the cultures of the East, especially that of Ukraine. Re-Imagine: Ourselves is the eighteenth major cultural event that Yara has presented at the Ukrainian Institute.

The Ukrainian Institute of America is located at 2 East 79th Street, on the corner of Fifth Avenue in New York. Tickets for Re-Imagine: Ourselves are available for each event at the door– Friday $15 Saturday $30, Sunday $10. Re-Imagine: Ourselves was made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Self-Reliance (NY) FCU and The Coca Cola Company. For further information call Yara at (212) 475-6474 or e-mail yara.arts.group@gmail.com.