Pickle Underground

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Pickle Underground

Multi-disciplinary non-profit organization showcasing Ukrainian art and artists working in Canada

05/26/2026

From our — January 2024
Ukrainian Lights Festival: Glowing Hope — Gala Concert

A festival bringing together Ukrainian music, contemporary composition, and fundraising for Ukrainian defenders.
As the full-scale invasion of Ukraine approached its second anniversary, we launched Ukrainian Lights — a classical music festival created in collaboration with Music Encore Concert Society.

The opening gala concert Glowing Hope took place at the Tom Lee Richmond Music Experience Centre, bringing together internationally recognized Ukrainian and Canadian artists including guitarist-composer Denys Panchenko, mezzo-soprano Taryn Plater, pianist Anna Sagalova, and pianist Eugene Skovorodnikov.

The program moved between Ukrainian classical repertoire and contemporary composition, featuring works by Vasyl Barvinsky, Volodymyr Ptushkin, Sergii Yushkevych, alongside original compositions by Denys Panchenko.
Alongside the music, the festival also became a space for direct support and solidarity. Donations collected during the event helped fund emergency medical kits for Ukrainian defenders.

This project marked another important step in the growth of Pickle Underground — larger collaborations, larger audiences, and a deeper connection between artistic practice and community action.
More from the archive soon.

05/08/2026

What we are building - for now

05/04/2026

From our — January 2023
Ukrainian Art Soirées: Anna Sagalova — Live Music / Fundraising

A series of benefit concerts expanding from Vancouver to Toronto.
In Toronto, the project grew into two very different evenings — an intimate house concert in a private residence and a larger, sold-out performance at the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto.

Pianist Anna Sagalova was joined by soprano Rachel Krehm, performing works by Ukrainian composers, including Anna Pidgorna’s “Eileen’s Lament.” Composer Anna Pidgorna guided the audience through the program, opening a space for conversation alongside the performance.

Across both concerts, the format shifted, but the intention remained the same — to hold space for Ukrainian music and to support those directly affected by the war.
All proceeds were directed toward the I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts in Kharkiv, which sustained damage from shelling and continues to rebuild.

The Vancouver concert raised $1600.
The Toronto concerts brought that support to a much larger scale.
This was the moment when the initiative began to expand — reaching new audiences and forming new connections.

More from the archive is coming.

04/27/2026

From our — October 2022
Ukrainian Art Soirées: Anna Sagalova — Live Music
A fundraising concert of Ukrainian classical music in a time of war.

At the Canadian Music Centre in Vancouver, we gathered for an intimate evening with pianist Anna Sagalova — an internationally recognized artist and Honoured Artist of Ukraine, who had recently evacuated from Kharkiv — alongside violinist Ken Lee.
The program featured works by Ukrainian composers including Mykola Lysenko, Marko Karminsky, Myroslav Skoryk, and Anna Pidgorna, with composer Anna Pidgorna guiding the audience through the repertoire and leading a conversation after the performance.
In this context, the music was not an escape, but a form of presence — a way of holding onto culture under threat.
All proceeds from the evening were directed toward the I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts in Kharkiv, damaged by shelling.
Performance, conversation, and direct support came together in one space.
Part of how Pickle Underground was taking shape.
More from the archive soon.

04/21/2026

From our — June 2022
Ukrainian Art Soirées: EthnoFilm — Film Screening

An informal evening exploring Ukrainian folk through film and music.
Our very first event.
It took place in the early months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — a time when many of us were trying to understand how to stay connected, how to support, and how to act from a distance.
Pickle Underground began as a small initiative to support Ukrainian musicians through direct donations. This evening became one of the first moments when that impulse took a different form — gathering people together around art.
We met at Studio 1C at Eighth & Eighth for a screening of short films by Iryna Danyleiko and Liubomyr Tkach (EHE films) — works that move between humour and ritual, intimacy and folklore.
There was tea, conversation, and a shared need to be in the same room.
This is where Pickle Underground started.

More from the archive soon.

04/08/2026

A few things about Pickle Underground👉

We’re an artist-run, Ukrainian-led studio based in New Westminster, BC — creating interdisciplinary projects across music, visual art, and performance.
Over the past three years, we’ve been building this space through concerts, exhibitions, and collaborative projects that bring artists and audiences together.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of it — as artists, collaborators, and audience.

More to come😊

04/02/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us. We were honestly touched to see a full room again — even for the second presentation💔

This time the atmosphere felt more relaxed, and we’re especially grateful for the thoughtful questions and conversations at the end.
This was the final presentation of Invented Folksongs in this format.

In the coming weeks, we will host two new events where you’ll be able to experience the exhibition and talk with artists.

Stay tuned for what’s next🙌

03/24/2026

Invented Folksongs is being featured across Canadian and international music platforms. And only 8️⃣ seats left for the final presentation.

Join us for an intimate evening with the music, the story behind it, and a chance to meet the composer and take home a signed album.

🗓️ March 28 | 7:30 PM (doors 7:00)
📍 The Highbrow (New Westminster, BC)
🎟️ Admission by donation – RSVP required
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1984591227786

⚠️ Seats are limited — reserve yours through the link in bio and join us for the final presentation evening of Invented Folksongs.

Photo credit: Anna Chibis

03/18/2026

Some things feel like choices. Until you start asking where they came from. This exhibition brings together three women artists, each working from a different experience, yet connected through a shared question:

What does freedom actually mean for a woman today?

Emerging from Anna Pidgorna’s album Invented Folksongs, the project unfolds between music, drawing, and illustration — between memory and the present. Here, Ukrainian folk is not treated as something fixed or preserved, but as a living material that continues to shift, fracture, and reappear in new forms.

The works do not illustrate the music directly. Instead, they exist in dialogue with it — sometimes echoing, sometimes resisting, sometimes opening another layer of meaning. Personal stories intersect with inherited patterns, and what feels individual begins to reveal itself as collective.

The exhibition takes place inside a domestic space, where the boundaries between private and public blur. Moving through it, the viewer is guided from familiar structures toward moments of uncertainty — where rules loosen, roles shift, and no clear answers are offered.

What remains is a question that stays with you:
has anything really changed, or have the limits simply taken on new forms?
—
The exhibition will be open during the album presentation:
🗓️ March 28 | 7:30 PM (doors 7:00)
📍 The Highbrow (New Westminster, BC)
🎟️ Admission by donation – RSVP required:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/invented-folksongs-album-release-exhibit-second-gathering-tickets-1984591227786?aff=oddtdtcreator

⚠️ Seats are limited — reserve yours through the link in bio and join us for the final presentation evening of Invented Folksongs.

03/12/2026

What to expect at the Invented Folksongs presentation 👀

After the first evening sold out in less than 10 days, we are opening one more presentation of Invented Folksongs. This will also be the last chance to experience the album in this format — with the stories behind the music and the conversation around the exhibition.

This is an album presentation in a warm, intimate atmosphere — music, art, and conversation. A cultural gathering where you can listen to the music, explore the exhibition, and spend time together in a relaxed setting.

Anna Pidgorna will guide you through the story behind the album. Her music in Invented Folksongs grows from Ukrainian folk traditions but transforms them into something new and contemporary. She will speak about her research trips to Ukrainian villages, where she recorded traditional singing from elderly women, and how these encounters shaped her work as a composer and vocalist. Anna will also share video fragments from this field research.

Alongside the music, you will see an exhibition of drawings by Olha Kriuchkovska and Roksolana Uhryniuk, created in dialogue with the album. Roksolana will join the conversation as curator of the exhibition, speaking about the installation and about presenting her academic drawings within the context of her broader artistic practice.

🗓️ March 28 | 7:30 PM (doors 7:00)
📍 The Highbrow (New Westminster, BC)
🎟️ Admission by donation – RSVP required (link in bio)

⚠️ Seats are limited — reserve yours through the link:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/invented-folksongs-album-release-exhibit-second-gathering-tickets-1984591227786?aff=oddtdtcreator

Join us for the final presentation evening of Invented Folksongs!

Photo credit: Anna Chibis

Address

New Westminster, BC

Website

http://pickleunderground.com/

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