Orsha Museum of V. Karatkevich
"Orsha is my loved town, my primordial mother ..." – a famous Belarusian writer Vladimir Korotkevich wrote these words about his hometown.
And it's mutual. Orsha not only remembers and loves him but it is proud of its talented countryman. In 1994, in Orsha the museum "Our famous countrymen" was created, one exhibition section of which was planned to devote to Vladimir Korotkevich. But in 1995 the Union of Writers of Belarus suggested establishing of the museum V.S. Korotkevich in Orsha. And in September 1997, the museum was given the name "Orsha Museum V. S. Korotkevich." In 2000, the writer's museum building was opened to the 70th anniversary of the birth of V. S. Korotkevich with a small exposure in only one hall. And in February 2002, the museum opened the doors to welcome its visitors.
A tour begins with the porch of the museum, because of the fact that since 1925 there had been a building of maternity hospital, a monument of the civil architecture of the late XIX - early XX centuries, where the writer came into the world on the 26th of November in 1930.
The museum exhibition "Portrait of a writer and man" is located in two large rooms on the ground floor of the building. The central part of the exhibition hall is the first creative writer's workshop - a fragment of writer's study of his flat in Minsk. In 2005, to the 75th anniversary of Korotkevich the second room was opened that was devoted to the literary heritage of our countryman. There is sublime and romantic atmosphere because of the style of his works. There is a research center inside the exhibition. It includes a research library, educational materials, a workplace researcher. Here you can hear a unique record of the writer's own voice, musical compositions of Belarusian artists on his poetry, watch feature film on scenarios of Korotkevich. There is an art gallery on the second floor of the museum.
By 2012 the museum had been visited by over 100,000 people.
Today the exhibition features about 640 items. The most valuable of them are the personal belongings of the writer, the manuscripts of his works and his pictures.
Interesting thematic tours, museum studies, video films about Korotkevich and films which were made for his scripts are located in the archives of the museum.
Museum takes an active part in international exhibition projects, collaborates with Japan, Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Sweden. Two international scientific conferences dedicated to the work of Vladimir Korotkevich took place on the basis of the museum.