On July 26, 2019, O.O.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum hosted an opening of one painting exhibition “Yakiv Pauchenko’s Blue Cathedral”, dedicated to Baptism of Kyivan Rus-Ukraine Day. This day has been celebrated for more than 10 years on July 28, on the feast day of St.Prince Volodymyr, at the State level according to the relevant Decree of the President of Ukraine.
    The basis of the unusual museum exhibition is the painting “Blue Cathedral” by a well-known Kropyvnytskyi artist, Merited Artist of Ukraine, Serhii Shapovalov. It depicts a unique monument of history, city planning, and architecture of 1912 of the national importance – the Ascension Cathedral in Bobrynets town of Kirovohrad region. It was built on the project of a talented Yelisavethrad architect Yakiv Pauchenko. The Iconostasis was made in the architect’s iconostasic, art, icon-painting, and gilding studio inherited from his father.
    The story of the painting creation and the way it got to the museum is worth knowing. The work was created by the artist in 2014, and this fact is symbolic for the museum staff because 100 years earlier the architect Yakiv Pauchenko, being 48 years old, passed away, leaving amazing buildings of our town for us. Serhii Shapovalov presented the painting to the museum collection on March 21, 2016 – on Yakiv Pauchenko’s birthday during the festive events to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the architect. Before the festive events, the town authorities renamed after the architectone of the central streets, where the architect’s house (now the museum of his nephew Oleksandr Osmerkin) is located.
    The exhibition is completed by the original materials form the museum collection – the Diploma of Yakiv Pauchenko, graduate of the College of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture of Moscow Art Union of 1896, and copies of the cards from the photo album that were preserved in the Department of a Rare Book in the Regional Universal Scientific Library named after D.I.Chyzhevskyi and which brightly illustrates the successful work of the icon-painting studio of the architect. There is Yakiv Pauchenko’s photo near the Cathedral iconostasis in the album.