Conservation of Rushnyks of Five Regional Schools — Programme for Regional Museums
The museum launches a 6-month programme of conservation of authentic Ukrainian rushnyks — five regional schools (Sumy, Poltava, Podillia, Polissia, Prykarpattia).
In January 2026 a six-month educational programme 'Rushnyk Schools of Ukraine' began at the restoration workshop of the Ivan Honchar Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture. The programme focuses on the conservation of authentic rushnyks from five regional schools represented in Honchar's collection: Sumy region (red-and-black cross-stitch with geometric borders), Poltava region (blue-and-yellow satin stitch with floral compositions), Podillia (floral motifs with emphasis on field flowers), Polissia (white lacework with openwork patterns), Prykarpattia (multicoloured chimerie with geometric symbolism).
The programme curator is a restorer with 25 years of practical experience with historical textiles. The programme invited 15 participants — restorers from the regional museums of Sumy, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk. Disciplines: fibre identification (flax, hemp, cotton, silk); natural dye identification (madder, azurite, cochineal, saffron, elderberry); tear stabilisation techniques; restoration of embroidery stitches without modern chemical additives. A separate section is rushnyk composition symbolism (Berehynia, Tree of Life, Plowman, solar signs) as a codified system of Ukrainian spiritual culture.
