30 Years of the Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture — Petro Honchar's Mission
The Ivan Honchar Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture marked 30 years of work since its founding in 1993 — current director Petro Honchar continues his father's ethnographic mission.
In 2023 the Ivan Honchar Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture (Kyiv, building 19 of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra) marked 30 years since its founding in 1993 — the year of death of the outstanding Ukrainian sculptor-ethnographer Ivan Makarovych Honchar (1911-1993). The museum was created on the basis of his private collection of over 15,000 items of Ukrainian material and spiritual culture, gathered over 40 years of field expeditions across all regions of Ukraine.
The museum's current director is Petro Honchar, the founder's son, who continues and develops his father's work. Over three decades of work the museum has become a key institution for preserving Ukrainian ethnographic heritage. The mission for the next decade: digitisation of 100% of holdings (3D scanning, photo documentation, database with contextual metadata); publishing programme of Ivan Honchar's original publications from diaries and monographs; expansion of the international educational programme for the diaspora; partner expeditions with regional ethnographers to document still-living folk practices.
