The Museum of Theatrical, Musical and Film Arts of Ukraine was founded on January 30, 1923 as a theater museum at the Berezil art association, headed by Les Kurbas. The museum collection began to be created in the same year, and at the same time a special museum commission was formed, which included actors. The first contribution to the museum fund was 800 photographic negatives and photographs from a photographer from the museum commission, which recorded, in particular, performances of the Nikolai Sadovsky Theater. From the first days of its existence, this museum was intended to be an all-Ukrainian one. The famous actors Maria Zankovetskaya, Lyubov Linitskaya, Ivan Maryanenko, Ambrosy Buchma were the first to respond to Kurbas’s idea to create a museum. They were among the first to donate valuable exhibits to the institution.
In 1926, in connection with the move of “Berezil” as the best theater to Kharkov (then capital of Ukraine), the museum collection was transferred under the auspices of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, where on its basis the Ukrainian Theater Museum was organized and since then it has been an independent organization. At the same time, the museum was located on the territory of Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, where the museum town was organized. The pre-war collection consisted of approximately 60,000 exhibits, the special library – about 9,000 volumes. Immediately after the liberation of Kyiv from the fascist occupiers, the museum resumed work. It took a lot of effort to collect and systematize the collection, which suffered significant losses during the war, and to replenish the unique library.
In 1965, the museum received the name of the State Museum of Theatrical, Musical and Film Arts of Ukraine. Since the early 1980s, a branch of the institution has been the Maria Zankovetskaya House Museum, and since 2009 – the apartment museum Victor Kosenko. An important stage in the history of the museum was the construction of a stationary exhibition in the early 1980s (in the adapted premises of the former Lavra infirmary), which for the first time summarized the development of theater in Ukraine from its origins to the mid-20th century.
Today, the permanent exhibitions also include the following exhibitions:
– “The Man Who Was a Theater”, dedicated to Les Kurbas,
– “Living Strings of Ukraine” from the collection of Ukrainian folk musical instruments,
– “Female silhouette” (theater and film actresses of the late 19th – early 20th centuries).
Where is the Museum of Theater, Music and Film Arts of Ukraine?
Lavrskaya street, 9
10:00 – 17:00, Tuesday – closed
044 280 51 31