Folk Art Museum “Tosak” in Bushtyno village, Tiachiv area, Transcarpathian  region

Small-scale enterprise “Tosak”, Bushtyno village, Tiachiv area, Transcarpathian  region.
Zakarpattia! A wonderful land of picturesque nature, mountains and forests. Bushtyno village is situated in the valley, where the Tereblia and the Tysa rivers interflow. The history of the village began more than 630 years ago. Yet since then traditional handicrafts were the essential part of villagers’ life. The major handicrafts were weaving, embroidery and carving.

Currently, these handicrafts have almost disappeared from our land.  For the purpose of retention and revival of them, we - Volodymyr and Nataliya Topeha created a small-scale enterprise “Tosak” on March 1991. We had found experts both in Bushtyno and in neighboring villages, accepted them for employment and after only three months our first produce appeared – embroidered tablecloths, shirts, towels (rushnyky), carved manufacture. The first acknowledgement of the work was on August 22-26 1991 in Kharkiv city on the international exhibition “Slobods’ka Yarmarka”, where the enterprise was awarded the third prize among more than hundred similar organizations throughout the whole Soviet Union. 

On September 1992, we opened a shop named “Khudohzniy Salon” (art gallery). Our enterprise’s production as well as the production of other experts of Zakarpattia, and later on – of the rest of Ukrainian regions was displayed in the gallery. In 2001 on basis of collected material – antique embroidery, a small “Museum of antique clothes and embroidery” was established. 

With the lapse of time, it turned into “Regional ethnographic museum”. More than 3500 exhibits are collected in the premises of the museum - ladies’ and men’s wear, tablecloths, rushnyky, a traditional loom - krosna, every day life items, related to weaving and embroidery etc.. 

“Khudohzniy salon” and the museum was visited by the pupils of local schools and kindergartens, numerous tourists from different regions of Ukraine and from abroad – they all admitted the importance of existence of such a culture centre.

Many photos and documents on history and ethnography of Bushtyno and other the Tereblia River valley villages are collected. We closely cooperate with scholars of Transcarpathian National Ethnographic Museum and Uzhgorod National University. Article written by Natalia Prikhodko