Beginning as a private collection of antiquities displayed within artist Ivan Honchar’s home and first shared with daring visitors in 1959 during an uncertain political "thaw", the Ivan Honchar museum has transformed into an institution with national status. The museum’s history demonstrates how it has passed through the thorns of Ukraine’s modern history.
Ivan Makarovych Honchar began acquiring the antiquities that compose his collection in the 1950s as he ventured on field expeditions to Ukrainian villages.
Ivan Honchar in an exhibition arrangement of the "house" museum (1964)
"Ivan Honchar in search of treasure": Mali Dmytrovychi village in Obukhiv district, Kyiv region. The image is taken from a history and ethnography album "Ukraine and Ukrainians" (Volume 19)
According to recollections, a folk painting entitled "Kozak Mamai" (named after a prominent Ukrainian folklore hero) was stashed away by its owner, a resident of the Kobeliaky town, in the straw in his barn. He did so because the painting "was ordered to be destroyed as an example of nationalist painting to prevent [the viewer] from longing for the Kozaks".
Ivan Honchar discovered the wooden sculpture of the Saviour, which was used to bless the Haydamaky rebels in Kholodnyi Yar, in the choir loft of the dilapidated Motronynskyi Monastery.
Wood carving "The Savior" ("The Saint") from the Motronynsky Nunnery, Cherkasy region. МІГ КН-2822.
The very same "Cossack Mamay" (oil on canvas). Kobeliaky town, Poltava region, XVIII century. МІГ КН-6919
The collector stored all these rarities that carried the Ukrainian spirit in his own home on Novonavodnytska street in Kyiv. This is how the residential museum of Ivan Honchar was established. It first welcomed visitors in 1959.
Under the roof of Honchar’s cottage on Novonavodnytska Street in Kyiv, a collection of items prohibited and condemned by official Soviet ideology found shelter. These items included unique objects of folk culture and everyday life from the 16th-20th centuries, icons, Kozak relics, and anything that carried the spirit of Ukrainianness. In the Communist empire, the very existence of a private museum challenged the system a defiant "anti-Sovietism". The totalitarian authorities were disturbed by the exhibits because they spoke to the visitors in the language of the seemingly "lost world", which everyone miraculously remembered.
The generation of the so-called Sixtiers gathered in Honchar’s domestic museum. For over 30 years, in the era of uniform greyness, this is where the "intellectual dissidents" came together to look for color and meaning in life. They were determined to do so despite the KGB's "never-sleeping eye” constantly monitoring the residence on Novonavodnytska. The visitors to the domestic museum were often subjected to persecution and repression as a result.
The museum emerged from "underground" during the late 1980s when tectonic geopolitical transformations began to shake the Soviet state. The political leadership of the Ukrainian SSR began inviting high-ranking foreign guests visiting Kyiv to Ivan Honchar’s cottage. His vast and scientifically organized collection of Ukrainian antiquities was far superior to the locked funds of many "official" museum institutions.
The museum received recognition at the state level only after Ukraine gained independence.
On June 18, 1993, Ivan Honchar passed away, never having seen the renovated museum. His life's legacy was taken up by his nephew and honorary son, an artist and museologist, Petro Honchar.
Ivan Honchar in an exhibition arrangement of the "house" museum (1980s)
On December 18, 1991, President Leonid Kravchuk signed an order to establish the Ivan Honchar Museum. The house of the former military Governor-General who resided at 29 Sichnevoho Povstannia Street (now 19 Lavrska Street) was provided for this purpose. However, like a paper plane, this document circled the corridors of inert and indifferent Kyiv state agencies for years.
On June 18, 1993, Ivan Honchar passed away, never having seen the renovated museum. His life's legacy was taken up by his nephew and honorary son, an artist and museologist, Petro Honchar.
Consequently, President Kravchuk addressed an emotional written order to the Mayor of Kyiv: "This issue has dragged on too long. It should be put to an end urgently, if only out of respect for the memory of the deceased."
Today, the museum's collection includes more than 27,000 objects.
President Leonid Kravchuk signed an order to establish the Ivan Honchar Museum
Ivan Honchar passed away, never having seen the renovated museum
the museum was subordinated to Kyiv City Administration
the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On establishing the Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture” was issued
by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, the Ivan Honchar Museum acquired national status
Petro and Ivan Honchar (1980ies)
As a result, the museum was subordinated to Kyiv City Administration in 1994; however, the building remained on the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defence for another three years.
During this period, only four rooms in the f1570 square meter building were partially renovated and some areas were still used as military dormitory. Two hundred fifty tons of construction waste were removed from the historical 18th century basement. Due to lack of funding, renovation activities had to be further delayed.
Only through media attention, advocacy by deputies and creative intellectuals, and President Leonid Kuchma's intervention, was the unique institution rescued, and new horizons for its creative potential revealed. On December 2, 1999, the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On establishing the Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture” was issued.
The essence of the Centre's concept went beyond establishing Honchar’s cottage house as a museum – it intended to ensure the architectural monument was a central element of the exhibition. For this purpose, it was necessary to restore the central building of the 18th-century manor and two western wings built at the end of the 19th century.
Due to bureaucratic red tape and underfunding, the opening of the first museum exhibition halls to the public was continuously postponed and became possible only on August 22, 2004.
In 2009, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, the Ivan Honchar Museum acquired national status.
The official opening of the first permanent exhibition: the chief of the Head Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Bystrushkin presents a symbolic key to the Museum Director Petro Honchar (22 August 2004). Photographed by Anatolii Zaiika.
Today, the museum's collection includes more than 27,000 objects.
The Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture’s collection is constantly growing to include valuable artifacts newly discovered by researchers during their expeditions to villages in different regions of Ukraine and thanks to numerous donors. The time has come for renewal and upgrading, allowing both the permanent exposition and the museum's activities to develop a contemporary character.
The Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture is located in a historical building - the State House of the Governor-General built between 1757 and 1762.
The building stands close to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and next to the ancient defensive ramparts erected by Hetman Ivan Samoilovych and subsequently improved by Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
In 1706, a fortress was constructed on the site and later, an estate for the governor-general was built.
The building was designed by Semyon Karin (1733 - 1797) who began his creative career as a teenager when he was hired as an assistant architect in the team of craftsmen who built St. Andrew's Church.
The estate originally included a main Baroque-style, two-story building, two wings, and a fence with a gate. Only the basement was built of stone and it has survived to this day. The second-storey wooden structure was destroyed by fire in 1782.
In the 19th century, a pharmacy, a military commissariat, and a quartermaster's warehouse were located here. During the mid-20th century under the Soviet Union, the building served as a dormitory for the military.
During the building’s reconstruction in 1806-1809, the upper floor was remade of brick. The new facades were decorated in a classical style and the building acquired a design very similar to the one we see today.
The building was reconstructed from 1806-1809 when it was decided the upper floor was to be constructed in brick to make it more durable. The new facades were decorated in a classical style and as a result, the building looked nearly identical to how it does today. A two-story brick building was built on the site of the northern wing. Today, it houses the museum’s administration and research departments.
According to archival documents, Governor-General Fyodor Voeykov lived in this building from 1766 to 1775.
Over the building’s history, it has been used as a field pharmacy, governorate treasury, commissariat office (in fact, it financed the reconstruction mentioned above), and quartermaster's warehouse. During the Soviet era, the building served as a military warehouse, and from the middle of the 20th century, it was used as a dormitory for the Kyiv Military District.
In 1979, the building was acknowledged to be an architectural monument of republican significance. Nevertheless, even in 1994, when it was assigned to the Ivan Honchar Museum, families of military personnel still lived there. They were only resettled over the next ten years.
In 2001–2004, the estate underwent restoration. On August 22, 2004, the museum finally opened its first exposition!
Please try again later.
We will contact you within 5 working days.
Information in the process of filling.
