Thematic exhibition "Architectural collage of the city of Kropyvnytskyi" is dedicated to the 270th anniversary of the city, founded in 1754 as Yelysavethrad, which in Soviet times was called Zynovievsk (1924-1934), Kirovo (1934-1939) and Kirovohrad (1939-2016), and now bears the name of the outstanding Ukrainian theater figure Marko Kropyvnytskyi.
    This is a joint artistic event of the O.O.Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum and the O.O.Osmerkin Art School of the city of Kropyvnytskyi. The exhibition is organized within the framework of two museum art projects: "Children's Art Gallery", which aims to popularize the best works of young artists, and "The City of Kropyvnytskyi through a Photo Lens", which involves exhibiting photographs by contemporary photographers that present the historical heritage and highlight the life of the city of Kropyvnytskyi and its residents.
    The art school in Kropyvnytskyi was established in 1959, and was named after the professor of painting, Olexander Osmerkin, in 1992 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Experienced teachers professionally pass on their knowledge of painting, drawing, sculpture, decorative arts, and the history of world fine arts to children. The school's students are active participants and diploma winners of city, regional, all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions- competitions, winners of the "Youth Palette" Art Competition, founded by the O.O. Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum and the Kirovohrad Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine with the support of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Kropyvnytskyi City Council, named after the Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine Leonid Bondar, who worked as the director of the art school for over twenty years. Among the school's graduates are famous artists - members of the National Unions of Artists, Architects and Masters of Folk Art of Ukraine, laureates of regional awards in the field of fine arts and art history named after Oleksandr Osmerkin and in the field of architecture, heraldry and vexillology and decorative and applied arts named after Yakiv Pauchenko.
    The basis of the exposition of the thematic exhibition "Architectural Collage of the City of Kropyvnytskyi" is twenty creative works with architectural landscapes of the city by young artists aged 14 to 16, made in various techniques - pencil, watercolor, pastel, ink, liner, as well as decorative collage, under the guidance of teachers Iryna Zantariia, Yuliia Zakharina, Oleksandra Kuznetsova, Volodymyr Plitin, Olena Pryimachenko and school director Hanna Tymofiienko. Many of the presented drawings reproduce buildings built according to the designs of the Yelysavehrad architect Yakiv Pauchenko (1866-1914), which are an ornament of the architectural ensemble of the historical center of Kropyvnytskyi.
    The original component of the exhibition is photographic materials from the museum collection "Modern Ukrainian Photo Art". These are large-format color author's photographs by Honored Journalist of Ukraine Ihor Demchuk and thematic photo collages created by Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadiezhdin, which were exhibited as part of the museum photo project for the City Day "At the Crossroads of Yelysavethrad – Kirovograd streets" in 2014-2018, and which depict the architecture of the city from the time of its foundation to the present day. The result of this unique art project was the photo album "A City of Five Names. At the Crossroads of Styles and Epochs. Architectural Images of the City of Kropyvnytskyi Through the Lens of Ihor Demchuk", published in 2018 by the publishing house "Imeks-LTD" with the support of the Kropyvnytskyi City Council as part of the program for the development of culture and tourism, and has been reprinted for the third time, as it is popular and in considerable demand among both Kropyvnytskyi residents and guests of our city, which fascinates with its architectural originality.
    It is not for nothing that Lviv art historian Iryna Mahdysh in her author's book "Art Nouveau. Styles of Ukrainian Art of the 20th Century", published in Kyiv in the year the war began in 2022, in the section about our city and its architects "Kropyvnytskyi. Competition for Art Nouveau" notes: "Additional tourist trains still do not run in the direction of Kropyvnytskyi, although this architectural Eldorado has already been discovered by gourmets… Both Pauchenko and Lishnevskyi were supporters of the so-called "brick modernism"… Pauchenko used the traditions of Ukrainian wooden construction, enlivened the facades with red-and-white masonry, windows of various shapes, light asymmetry, and complex roofs… It was a healthy competition between the two architects, in which the city won…".