State Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art includes one of the largest collections of folk art in Eastern Europe. In the museum’s collection includes over 60,000 exhibits of different times. History of the collection began in the late XIX century, when a group of prominent Ukrainian and Russian cultural figures, among whom were A. Prahov, D. Tsherbatskoy, M. and M. Murashenko Bilyaschitsky, invested in the foundation of the Kiev Museum of Art, Science and Industry. Ethnographic department of the museum owned a small collection of folk art, which over time has been significantly increased.
Museum exhibition gives a broad idea of the history of Ukrainian folk art. It consists of two parts: a Ukrainian folk art from the first half VXII to the early XX century Ukrainian art of the Soviet era. Each part is also divided into sections: textiles, embroidery, woodcarving, pottery, clothing, glassware, porcelain and paintings. Exhibits each of the sections are in accordance with the historical, chronological and ethnographic principles.
A collection of rugs, carpets, and factory hand made fabrics has 5,000. The process of making quilts in the Ukraine is remarkable above all its national identity. In the collection there are also examples of artistic textiles: tablecloths, towels (decorative towels), national costumes and bedspreads decorated with original ornaments. Exhibits in this section represent the products of the best-known weaving factories in Ukraine: Krovelets, Digtyary and Boguslaw, who continue to actively operate to this day. The collection of printed fabric is much smaller, but it includes a rare tissue samples XVII-XIX centuries.
In the museum presents a vast collection of embroidery, which is the largest in the museum as the number of exhibits and workshops. There is also a fairly substantial collection of artifacts from Podolia and wonderful specimens of embroidery from Bukovina and gutsulsky land.
Collection of objects of wood carving and bone is also one of the most celebrated collections of the museum and several thousand copies. It includes a unique carved things everyday use, which were distributed in various regions of Ukraine. The exhibition also displays furniture, utensils, tools, carvings part of a harness and musical instruments XVIII-XIX centuries.
Woodcarving the Soviet period is represented objects from Kiev, Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy, Cherkassy and Lviv regions, as well as from Podolia, Volhyna, gutsulsky land and the Carpathians.
Decorative painting has been popular in Ukraine since ancient times, but only in the Soviet time it became an independent branch of folk art, which is a decorative panel on paper, executed in tempera, gouache or watercolor. The Museum boasts a collection of works of masters of decorative art.
