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Ethnographic museums in Ukraine were first established in the first quarter of the 19th century. Unique collections of then so-called "Little-Russian Art" were collected. After some time it used to transform into so-called "Great-Russian Art". The process of plagiarism of national treasures continued during the Soviet era. The Second World War also heavily damaged Ukrainian culture. In the mid-1960s there were 130 museums in Ukraine; however, none of them fully exhibited our traditional culture. At that time, several enthusiasts appeared. They took up the noble cause of the Ukrainian culture's renaissance and development. Ivan Honchar (1911-1993) was one of them. In the hellfire of WWII he vowed that if he survived, he would dedicate his life to preserving the nation's treasures. His private museum, founded in the late 1950s, became a center where the nation's consciousness was forged. Tetiana Poshyvailo-Marchenko, an art critic and deputy director of the Ivan Honchar Museum, dwells upon the unique collections of rushnyks (embroidered towels), carpets, folk apparel, hats and caps, wooden goods, pysankas (painted eggs), and folk paintings. There are 15 thousand items in the collection. In the future, the Ivan Honchar Museum, along with Ukrainian National Cultural Center (created by the Museum) will combine research and theory with the practical renaissance of the nation's artistic traditions.
