Museum of Ethnography and Crafts

The Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Craft of the Institute of Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is the only museum of ethnography in Ukraine, and it is subordinate to the Institute of Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The history of this museum dates back to 1951, when it was founded as the State Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Crafts of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Lviv.

The museum was founded on the basis of the union of the Museum of Ethnography of the Lviv branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (former Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR) and the Lviv State Museum of Art Industry (the former City Museum of Art Craft), which were supplemented in 1940 with the collections of former public and private museums, such as the National Museum, the Museum named after Lyubomyrsky, museum named after Didushytskyi, the girls′ gymnasium of the Vasiliyanka sisters and the ethnographic collection of O. Prusevich.

Today, the museum is located in the building of the former Galician credit bank, which stands out for its romantic interpretation of Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque motifs. The building is decorated with polychrome brick, Ternopil stone, forged metal bars and majolica reliefs. The interior is decorated with the works of the sculptor Leonard Marconi.

The museum has two departments: ethnographic and art craft, with a total of more than 72,000 exhibits. The exposition includes a large collection of Ukrainian folk clothes, as well as a variety of furniture, covering six hundred years of history (from the 15th to the 20th centuries). The museum also has a valuable collection of Coptic fabrics belonging to the products of the first Christians of Northern Egypt and important for preserving the basics of the language of the ancient Egyptians.

This museum is an important cultural center that helps to preserve and study Ukrainian ethnography and folk art.