Ivan Gonchar Museum is one of the largest museums in Ukraine. It is amazing place. Museum Collection includes more than 15 thousand exhibits. These are a work of art, objects of ethnographic and artistic value. The exhibition includes: painting (folk painting, collection of icons, professional painting, graphics), the popular fabric (towels, embroidery, outdoor clothing, carpets), ceramics (Makitra, pots, bowls, toys), folk musical instruments (Kobza, Pandora dulcimer, lyre).
Ivan Gonchar is a public figure, sculptor and painter started collecting in the late 50's. Traveling to Ukraine for four decades, he thought out and preserved items of folk art. Ivan Gonchar studied folk culture of Kiev region, Zhytomyr, Poltava region, the Donets Basin, Podolia, Podnistrovya, Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia.
The result of titanic work was a unique collection of folk art, which became the basis of a private museum of Ivan Gonchar. At a time when public museums focused exclusively on the "Soviet Art" at the Museum was presented Ukrainian traditional culture, including folk art, without ideological restrictions and censorship. Public museum collection became well known in Ukraine and abroad. The museum was visited tens of thousands of visitors.
Famous sculptor died in 1993, but his dream of a museum came to life. In September of that year, was founded by the state Museum. Administration of Kiev cave the museum space in a building that is an architectural monument of the XVIII century. In 1999 the presidential decree on the basis of the state Museum was based Ukrainian Center of Folk Culture.