The museum is a treasury of the heritage that was left the spiritual giant of Ukraine, the great poet and painter Taras Shevchenko. It is accommodated at the magnificent palace, an architectural monument of the 19th century, that in due time belonged to the family of aq sugar manufacturer Fedir Tereschenko.

The pride of the museum is the most complete collection of the poet’s works of art (over 700), rare autographs, photographs, editions of Kobzar published in his lifetime, memorial objects, archival materials and documents. The exposition presents almost all editions of Shevchenko was acknowledged both as an academician of engraving and an outstanding master of etching of the 19th century. The museum collection also possesses such rarities as a portrait of V.Zhukovski painted by K.Bryulov which was the ransom for getting Shevchenko out of serfdom, and original paintings by the poet’s contemporaries: V.Sternberg, P.Boryspolets, I.Sokolov, P.Fedotov, M.Sazhin. The collection is constantly supplemented with efforts by contemporary Ukrainian artists who search for a new plastic implementation of Shevchenko’s word. At present the museum collection numbers 79,000 unique items.