On living tradition

On October 5, the National Center for Folk Culture (NCFC) “Ivan Honchar Museum” welcomed its friends: colleagues, sponsors, partners and visitors, artists and musicians. The museum celebrated its 20th anniversary with a rich program, summing up the results of the work that has been done already, and making the plans for the near future known to the wide public. Greeting the museum staff, most of the guests pointed out that the museum is a modern institution, where visitors are offered to see not only the “preserved artifacts,” but also the “living tradition.” Answering The Day’s question about how the museum staff manage to keep the folk culture up to date, show it in the modern light in such a way that it doesn’t lose anything, Director General of the NCFC “Ivan Honchar Museum” Petro Honchar said: “One must live the way he wants, be free in this life and in this world. You must preach, love, and multiply what you love to do.” This can well be a recipe for success and not just for museums, but also in many other areas of life.

However, the formula “to live the way you want” does not rule out strategic planning with rational matter. For example, among the 20 priorities for the near future, the museum points out the following: “effective management, an attractive program and institutional marketing, creating a strategic plan and implementation of long-term program planning, expansion of government, private and corporate sponsorship, updating the museum’s collection and program, establishing the link between cultural heritage, contemporary culture and society, making the display space more dynamic, development of target audience, interactive exhibitions,” etc.

“Since we are the people of the modern time, we cannot live by the past. We love the beauty created by our people. It is the essence of our lives, proven over time, shaped by our mentality. That’s why we are modern people, but, at the same time, we can relive the life lived by Ukrainian people hundreds of years ago,” told Honchar. “The main thing now is to finish the building and adapt it for museum use. These are only the fragments of the exposition.”

In these 20 years the museum has demonstrated that traditional folk culture may fit perfectly in a modern context and be relevant. Among the achievements of the museum one can name its evolution from home museum to the National Center, systematic educational and promotional programs, opening of the experimental art gallery, museum shop, active publishing activity, visible presence of the museum in the Internet, including social networks, and more. The museum attracts young people both as visitors and as museum employees, volunteers, and simply people, who want to take part in numerous workshops, festivals, and other activities. Interest among the young people to the museum tells a lot. “As a child I didn’t like museums at all, and if I were told back then that I would work at one, I would not have believed it,” told with a smile Maria KVITKA, researcher at the museum, who has been working here for nine months already. “For me it was an image of a boring job that never changes. After getting a job here I was impressed with how museum work can be diverse. It is really a center of culture – apart from research work here, I sing, dance, conduct classes in children’s school. That’s how interesting and diverse the work here is.”

One could easily spot the museum staff and volunteers at the celebration – they were all smiling, friendly, dressed in traditional clothing, they answered all the questions, helped the visitors, told about certain exhibits that were interesting to the visitors. “You should do everything sincerely, without any unnecessary moves, so that you’d feel nice about it yourself. To make it true life. Today many museums took the course on interactive activities and modernization. They try to be interesting to people. Our museum is a nice example of this,” continued Kvitka.

Ivan Honchar Museum prepared an interesting program for its anniversary celebration, creating a cozy atmosphere of a holiday at home. There was no pathos or officious moments. Since the early morning visitors could watch films about the life and work of Ivan Honchar – a man, who in opposition to the totalitarian regime was able to collect and examine a collection of national antiquities. This collection, that had been preserved for a long time at the home of Ivan Honchar, became the starting point for the Museum.

Also during the day visitors could go on thematic tours around the museum and in the late afternoon visit the opening of the jubilee exhibition “Ivan Honchar Museum+20: Involvement,” which demonstrates the path from the state museum to the National Center, a collection of national antiquities and gifts that have been presented to the museum in the past 20 years. After the opening of the exhibition there was a music program presented to the guests – vechornytsi and a gala concert featuring choir Homin, band Khoreia Kozatska, ensemble Bozhychi, bands Buttia, Huliai Horod, Roksolania, Kralytsia; school of Folk Dance, children’s ensembles Dai Bozhe, Tsviten, Oreli, folk ensembles from the village of Fasova, Marakiv raion and the village of Demydiv, Vyshhorod raion.

The Day has also asked the people, who financially support the Ivan Honchar Museum and generally invest in the cultural sphere, about what motivates them to do so.

COMMENTARIES

Ihor DIDKIVSKY, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NCFC “Ivan Honchar Museum,” Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the “European Economic Chamber of Trade, Commerce and Industry for Ukraine”:

“State is foolish if it does not realize that museum business is a vector of expansion. We are doing something that comes naturally: invest in culture without expecting benefits from it. Two years ago I founded the Board of Trustees of the Ivan Honchar Museum and we now financially support the museum. I invest in culture because I am a Ukrainian, because it gives me drive, because it also means investing in yourself. Ukraine – that’s me. I believe that departure from traditions means death for any people. In a global world we are only interesting because of our traditions.”

Morgan Williams, President of the US-Ukraine Business Council:

“When I look at the exhibits of the museum, I can see that Ukrainians are very creative and artistic people. I like the fact that all the items presented at the museum once belonged to real people, who mostly lived in villages and made these kitchen utensils and clothing with their hands and decorated their homes on their own. That’s why this museum is a real treasury of genuine folk art.

“I personally love folk, rural art, particularly that of America and Ukraine. Our Council provides financial assistance to folk culture and institutions that deal with it: we purchase some exhibits, support production of documentaries, and so on. Ivan Honchar Museum is one of our special projects. My favorite exhibits here are folk paintings created by rural people, who were not professional artists. They painted their impressions, feelings, and dreams on boards, on paper, on canvas.

“For people, especially the young people, it is important to know the history of their country, history of their culture. It is important to understand that things that are happening now are inextricably linked to what happened in the past. These traditions and customs are all very important for the future of Ukraine. The thing that I like about Ivan Honchar Museum the most is that it is a living museum.”