Taras Shevchenko National Museum

The Taras Shevchenko National Museum is a literary and art museum in Kyiv devoted to the life and work of the Ukrainian poet, artist, philosopher and public intellectual Taras Shevchenko. The museum was founded on 24 April 1949 by merging the Central State Shevchenko Museum and the Shevchenko Picture Gallery in Kharkiv. It came about thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian writers and art historians, and the former mansion of the patron Mykola Tereshchenko on Shevchenko Boulevard was chosen for the exhibition. The first director was Mykola Matsapura, who before the war had looked after the preservation and evacuation of Shevchenko items. When it opened, the museum already had about 4,000 objects, including unique paintings, documents, manuscripts and personal belongings of the Kobzar. Over its history the museum has renewed its exhibition and interiors several times while preserving the authentic spirit of the Tereshchenko mansion. Today the exhibition occupies 15 halls and combines a biographical section with a gallery of the artist's original works. In recent decades the museum has actively expanded its space, introduced interactive technologies and made itself accessible to different groups of visitors. In 2001 it received national status, and in 2018 an award for inclusivity. Despite the challenges of war it keeps working, presenting Shevchenko's legacy in a modern format while caring for the safety of the collection.