This week’s series features The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko. The book is one of the most read Ukrainian book by intellectuals and writers, and although it is lengthy, it holds the status of such classics as War and Peace. The quality of the translation and the writing itself is reminiscent of Joyce or Proust according to some reviewers. Opening in the turbulent 2003, the novel covers nearly 60 years of Ukrainian history and as such, requires knowledge of or curiosity of the country’s history, neighbors, and borders. The work ranges from World War II to Stalinist USSR and contemporary Ukraine (before the current war) and explores questions about remembering the past while reviving national culture after decades of cruel oppression from totalitarian regimes – all discussions relevant to today’s sad and tragic war of aggression.
In 2015, Conny Bogaardt came to Garden City from the Netherlands via Denver to join the Western Kansas Community Foundation. She had a museum background in Holland and the U.S, served as executive director for the Rocky Flats Institute and Museum in Arvada, CO, and was curator for both the Hotel de Paris Museum in Georgetown, CO, and the McAllister House Museum in Colorado Springs, CO. I have taught art history and museum studies in the Denver Metro area, and arts and cultural management at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. I recently finished a term as chair of the Kansas Association of Community Foundations (KACF), and serve on Humanities Kansas’ board. In my spare time I enjoy visiting museums, reading, writing, traveling, and playing the piano.
