BIFF Offscreen: Restoration in Process

Monday October 10 @ 4PM @ Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center

---

BIFF Offscreen: Restoration in Process

Live tour of the restoration work currently in process at Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center w/ painter and restoration artist Dianna Derhak. This artist's talk and live tour will kick off BIFF's Budmo! Hey! Budmo! Hey! Budmo! Hey! Hey! Hey! Party, and celebrate Dnipro – as an amazing architectural gem; exhibition space for collaborative, multi-generational art; community space (+ place for us all to be together!); and location for many WNY film productions.

---

About the Artist:

Dianna Derhak has worked in Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine and the USA. She is a former trial attorney and practiced civil and criminal law. As an international consultant, Dianna managed multi-million dollar projects, designed and implemented leadership programs and facilitated countless retreats, seminars and workshops. Dianna began her career in concert production in the music industry, working with top artists, including the Rolling Stones, Genesis, Neil Diamond and Bruce Springsteen. She also created a critically-acclaimed educational television series in Ukraine.

She attended the University of Buffalo (B.A.), the University of Houston Law Center (J.D.) and the National University of Kyiv Mohyla - Kyiv Mohyla School of Business (M.B.A.). Dianna came to art later in life and currently lives and works in her hometown of Buffalo, New York where her art studio is located. She paints in oils as well as acrylics.

---

About Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center

Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center was founded by Ukrainian emigrants that were displaced from their homeland by World War Two. The founding members sought to establish a community center where they could maintain their cultural identity, pass their heritage onto their children, socialize, and participate in organizations that would continue their progress towards an independent Ukraine.

Naturally, they named their new community center after the largest river in Ukraine, which flows past the capital of Kyiv south to Odessa, entering the Black Sea.

The building was built in 1914 as the Fraternal Order of Orioles Nest #1 by prominent German business leaders, and purchased by Buffalo's Ukrainian American community in 1955.

Dnipro is home to multiple local and international Ukrainian organizations including the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union, Women's Choir "Mriya", and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Dnipro is also a part of the Ukrainian American Freedom Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Hundreds of events have been hosted at Dnipro including film and theatre productions, concerts, dance performances, weddings, banquets, barbecues, birthday parties and more.

---

---

*Please not that BIFF does not usually include descriptive or biographical information about the wonderful spaces that our Offscreen exhibitions and events are hosted at, but in this case Dnipro is not only site specific, but a collaborator (representing other collaborators) in this artist's talk. The tour given by Dianna Derhak (one of many artists whose work you'll see in the building), is on behalf of all. *