By CatholicPhilly Staff • Posted March 24, 2026
Ukrainian artists will publicly unveil a large scale collaborative painting Sunday, March 29 at 11:30 a.m. at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia, concluding a monthlong art project responding to the war in Ukraine.
Since early March, artists Tetiana Mialkovska, Tetiana Rusetska, and Iryna Semenenko are painting “The Song of Songs of the Ukrainian People,” a 30-meter monumental panel conceived as a continuous visual narrative.
Drawing on traditions of murals, folk painting and devotional art, the work blends sacred Christian imagery tied to the liturgical calendar with contemporary symbols portraying collective memory, suffering and resilience.
The painting includes participation from Ukrainian soldiers with amputations currently receiving prosthetic treatment in the United States; internally displaced Ukrainians; and young Americans of Ukrainian descent.
The project aims to draw international attention to the human and cultural cost of the war in Ukraine while using art as a form of healing and social rehabilitation.
It was developed by Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak and artist Tetiana Mialkovska, a Gold Star mother whose son joined the Ukrainian army in the first days of the Russian invasion in 2022 and was killed in action.
The initiative is part of the artistic and socio-cultural initiative “Creativity — the Antonym of War” and the humanitarian efforts of the “Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund,” launched by the Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the United States. The fund distributed $3.5 million in 2024–2025 to support war victims.
Mialkovska is also the founder of the Piaternia NGO, established in 2014 to provide art-based rehabilitation for Ukrainian soldiers and, since 2022, for children affected by the war.
The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is located at 810 N. Franklin Street in Philadelphia.