Administrative History
The Maksym T. Rylʹsʹkyĭ Institute of Art, Folklore Studies and Ethnology traces its history back to increased scholarly interest in oral traditions in the early twentieth century. In 1920, the Ethnographic Commission was created and played an integral role in the development of Ukrainian ethnographic and folklore studies. The effort to collect materials related to cultural heritage and traditions in Ukrainian territories was especially productive during the years 1925-1930. The first state-sponsored ethnographic institution in the National Academy of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was the Department (Kabinet) of Anthropology and Ethnology named after Fedir (Khvedir) Vovk, founded in 1922. Considerable research in ethnomusicology based on systematic fieldwork in the region using more advanced technologies (e.g., Edison phonograph) was conducted by this department under the direction of Klyment V. Kvitka. A similar effort was underway in Eastern Galicia during the same period, conducted by Ukrainian folklorists and ethnographers. Several ethnographers, including Volodymir Kharkiv (whose musical transcriptions of Ukrainian bards are included in the collection), were very active in collecting oral histories and folk songs during the 1930s, prior to the repressive policies by Joseph Stalin's administration in Soviet Ukraine. Intermittent ethnographic work resumed in 1936 when the Institute of Ukrainian Folklore was established.
The name of the Institute has changed several times. Maksym T. Rylʹsʹkyĭ, who was appointed its director in 1942, headed the Institute of Folk Arts Studies for more than 20 years. Under his directorship, the Institute (since 1944 -- The Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnography) became a national research center in the studies of culture and art in Ukraine. The Institute was named after M.T. Rylʹsʹkyĭ in 1965. Its current name -- M.T. Rylʹsʹkyĭ Institute of Art, Folklore Studies and Ethnology -- was given in 1994. The Institute currently has several departments: Fine Arts Studies, Ethnic Arts and Culture Studies, Cinema and Theatre Studies, Folklore Studies, Studies of Arts and Folk Culture of Foreign Countries, Ethnology Center, Manuscript Fund, and Academic Library. The Institute also has branches in Khmelnitsky, Mykolaiv, Slovyansk, and Odessa.