Description of the attraction
For some time now, in the city of Kargopol there has been an amazing, and probably the only one of its kind, museum. It is located in a simple wooden house on Gagarin Street. The Shevelev family used to live in this house. Klavdia Petrovna and Dmitry Vasilievich were famous toy masters, continuers of the dynasty of toy masters. In this house, they raised three sons: Valentin, Vitaly and Vladimir. Subsequently, their children became famous artists.
In 1967, the elder brother of Klavdia Sheveleva, Alexander Petrovich, opened a branch of the Arkhangelsk factory "Belomorskie Uzory", which made dishes and toys from clay.
In November 2000, after the death of Dmitry Vasilyevich Shevelev, his heirs: children and grandchildren, initiated the creation of the museum. In the spring of 2002, work began in this direction. The son of D. V. Sheveleva Vladimir equipped an exhibition hall for holding exhibitions in the summer. Already in 2003, the first exhibition was opened. At the official opening of the museum, which took place on the thirteenth of July, of the same year, there were more than a hundred people, and in total, during the first year of work, more than a thousand people got acquainted with the museum's expositions.
The history of the Shevelevs dynasty began in the village of Tokarevo, it was located almost next to the city of Kargopol, just a few kilometers away if you go along the old Pudozh tract. Unfortunately, the village of Tokarevo, where the peasants have been developing pottery since ancient times, is no longer on the map. The development of pottery became possible precisely in this place, because this land is rich in deposits of clay, suitable for the manufacture of ceramic products. Previously, these lands were called Kargopol dry land, except for the village of Tokarevo, many potters lived in the villages: Pechnikovo and Grinevo. The village of Grinevo gave a start to the work of famous toy masters Ivan Vasilyevich Druzhinin and Ulyana Ivanovna Babkina. Their works are also presented in the exposition of the Kargopol Toy Museum.
Having left Tokarevo in the thirties of the XX century, like many peasants of the Russian North for the city, the Shevelevs did not forget about their roots and traditions. One of the organizers of the museum, Vladimir Dmitrievich Shevelev, proposes to install a memorial sign in the place where the Tokarevo village was.
In the exposition of the museum, in addition to clay toys, visitors can see the relics of the Shevelev family, family photographs, which can be used to trace the entire history of the family of toy craftsmen. Not only clay products are presented here. These are rugs, and frayed weaving, made by the famous craftswoman Nina Aleksandrovna Krehaleva and her students; products from birch bark, the authors of which are the famous folk master Sergei Grigorievich Kanashev and archaeologist Vasily Valentinovich Shevelev. A whole collection of forged items made by the blacksmith Grigory Grigorievich Zuev, famous for his golden hands in Kargopol and far beyond its borders.
The pearl of the exposition are the works of artists Vitaly Dmitrievich and Valentin Dmitrievich Shevelev. Their creations are unique, they are very colorful and masterfully convey the beauty of nature. The brothers' works, despite their kinship, are executed in different styles and manners. This further expands the boundaries of perception of the beauty of the landscapes of the Kargopol region.
Museum visitors will find a lot of new and interesting things in the expositions. Museum exhibits quickly captivate both a child and an adult, regardless of interests and preferences. They pull a person out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and plunge into the magical world of fairy tales.
