The Oskar Kolberg Museum in Przysucha, The Branch of the Museum of the Radom Countryside in Radom

Who Oskar Kolberg was? For some the answer is obvious, for others it is not as such. In Poland the whole year 2014 was dedicated to his figure. However, there is one place where memory and knowledge about him has long since been promoted – each day on a continuous and on-going basis. You can find nearly all information about the life, scientific contribution in the fields of ethnography and folklore, music work and Kolberg’s connections with Przysucha in the Oskar Kolberg Museum in Przysucha. And one can find even more.

Oskar Kolberg was a composer and folklorist of the greatest works in the 19th century Europe. The core of the exhibition program is thus a permanent biographical exhibition displaying Oskar Kolberg’s life and periods of his artistic life, his family and childhood, connections with Przysucha and his education and youth years. The museum collects, carries out scientific work and exhibits relics and materials presenting Kolberg’s works, considered to be one of the most outstanding achievements of the 19th century Polish science. It shows a developed and consistently implemented program of research on folk culture on the lands of the former Republic of Poland, and a unique collection of sources and studies in the form of “Lud” and “Obrazy Etnograficzne” volumes, including extracts of the manuscript archive.

This exhibition is regularly extended with the current state of studies on Kolberg’s legacy. The museum collects also the works of laureates of the Oskar Kolberg Award, i.e. folk artists who create in the fields of sculpture, painting, ceramics, artistic handicraft and who collect materials recording intangible heritage of the countryside culture. Such award is granted by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage to the most merited in this field. Since 2002, the Museum in Przysucha has been hosting the nationwide gala of the Oskar Kolberg Award of Merit to Folk Culture.

Other collections of the museum are the collections typical for a regional museum: both historical and artistic museum collections documenting the history of Przysucha and the local areas and a collection of ethnographic exhibits from the Opoczyn region, which includes a collected set of Polish folk art exhibits distinct in its substance.

As required for this type of an institution, the museum conducts scientific, research and archive works regarding history and ethnography of Przysucha area. It organizes temporary exhibitions, publishes books, catalogues and prints for special occasions. It runs a regional education and art knowledge program.