Today’s generation faces a constant shortage of material goods and, more importantly, time. And every one of us realizes deep down that being carried away by this problem, we devote less and less time to our spiritual development. But, as we know, people are different and there are those who in the endless cycle of life find a free moment and make every effort to spend this time as interesting and useful as possible. Someone relaxes in nature, someone visits the theater and cinema, and someone with great pleasure spends time in the company of exhibits of various museums.
In recent times, peculiar, unique museums have become widespread. These include the Museum of the Absurd, the Museum of Childhood in London, the Marijuana Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Russian Vodka in Moscow, the Water Museum in Kiev, and the Museum of «Kobzar» T.H.Shevchenko in Cherkassy. You can often hear it called the world’s only museum of one book. It is located in one of the architectural sights of Cherkassy, in the Tsybulskyi house. The room for the museum of «Kobzar» was not chosen by chance. The plaque on the facade of the building indicates that in 1859 from July 18 to 22, T.H.Shevchenko stayed here. Before this event, the poet was arrested and taken from the village of Moshen to the district governor Tabachnikov to serve pre-trial detention in a prison cell, but thanks to the intervention of the Cybulski family, who were prominent merchants of the first guild, the place of stay was changed and Kobzar was allowed to visit his defenders.
The Tsybulskys’ house was built in 1852. The original structure was one and a half storey and half wooden. At the end of the XIX century the building was thoroughly rebuilt and became a three-storey monumental structure. At that time it was the highest in Cherkassy. The main building material was yellowish brick. The architecture of the building is made with the signs of neoclassical style. The main facades, and there are two of them, are highlighted by balconies. The upper floor is decorated with plant ornaments, and its double-glazed windows, which was an innovation at that time, are decorated with vignettes. In general terms, the building looks restrained, but thanks to the balustrade, which decorated the roof, its appearance acquires a certain ornamentation.
The official opening of the museum «Kobzar» took place in May 1989 and was timed to the 130th anniversary of the national poet’s stay in Cherkassy, as well as to the 175th anniversary of his birth. The authors of the exposition were Cherkassy architects M.Y.Sobchuk and S.M.Fursenko, who are laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine named after T.H.Shevchenko. The exposition itself is structurally divided into several sections: lifetime, relating to the stay of Kobzar in Cherkasy, posthumous, modern editions of Shevchenko’s works and translations of his works. The main fund consists of collections donated by collectors E.Artemenko from Kharkiv and S.Arbuzov from Sumy.
The pride of the museum is the first edition of «Kobzar», which was published in St. Petersburg in 1840, and its author was only 26 years old. This edition is notable for two main features. The first is the appearance of the edition, which was issued on high-quality paper with a clear font, and decorated with an etching on the first page: a folk singer playing the kobza in front of a guide boy. The second peculiarity is that only a few copies of this «Kobzar» from 1840 have survived in the world.
The collection of the museum has many editions of «Kobzar», which were published in different languages for more than 150 years. In addition, visitors have the opportunity to admire all the works of T.H.Shevchenko. Also the fund of the museum has a large number of Shevchenko’s postcards, medals, badges, etc. This institution is unique in that the entire collection of publications of the Great Kobzar is accompanied by various documentary materials, which are directly or indirectly related to a particular work.
Every year the exposition of the museum is replenished with thousands of exhibits, but due to the limited exhibition space it is unfortunately impossible to present the entire collection.
Every year the museum «Kobzar» opens its doors to more than 50 thousand visitors, and they are welcomed by Olga Sharapa — permanent director of the museum and a relative of T.H.Shevchenko.
For more than twenty years the museum of «Kobzar» has been passing from generation to generation the testament of the great Ukrainian poet T.H.Shevchenko, who gave his life for the freedom of his people, and the word that is still waiting for you.