It is not just a simple anniversary for our village, it is the celebration of a date which turned Opishne into the capital of Ukrainian pottery. During its years of operation, the museum-reserve collected a lot of amateur and professional pottery. It hosted exhibits, art forums, festivals, scientific seminars, and conferences. One of the main aims of the institution is collecting written pottery sources, and the National Archives of Ukrainian Pottery, which represents one of the departments, is in charge of it. It has been operating as a structural department of the National Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery since 1993.
Everyone who enters this department dives into a world of history that contains numerous materials about Ukrainian pottery. This includes information about amateur and professional potters and pottery scholars, their life and art, and the thoughts they noted in their diaries in various moments of their lives. The main aim of the archives is to collect, store, and study the written documents, photos, videos and audio materials connected to the history of pottery.
The fund contains materials that were collected by scholars during the field ceramological expeditions of the National Archives of Ukrainian Pottery and the Institute of Ceramics (the department at the Institute of Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). There is a special fund in the archives that holds the legacies of the famous artist of clay toys Oleksandra Seliuchenko, the famous artist Motrona Nazarchuk, the renowned ceramics artist Trokhym Demchenko, and the masters of pottery Mykola Poshyvailo, Ivan Bilyk, and Vasyl Omelianenko. Yurii Lebishchak’s Peasant Brick Making manuscript (1927), presented by the prominent researcher of Ukrainian pottery Kateryna Mateiko, is a precious part of the collection. The ceramists Panteleimon Musiienko and Nina Fedorova also have their funds. Another special part of the archives’ funds is the collection of publications, newspapers cuttings, booklets, leaflets, postcards, invitations, pottery-themed posters, materials of the workshops, conferences and seminars. There is also a collection of photos that reflect the pottery craft of famed masters, their works, every day life and families. The collection includes photos of various pottery centers and interesting historical moments of the art forums in Opishne.
