The importance of autochthonous Sevdalinka for the development of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian cultural heritage was confirmed for the first time with the opening of the permanent museum exhibition in the Sevdah Art House.
The initiative to renew the “Velike daire”, which houses the Sevdah Art House, was launched by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Canton of Sarajevo. The reconstruction of this sophisticated building took a full 8 months before the Sevdah Art House was officially opened on the 8th of May 2008 as part of the “Sarajevo Canton Days 2008” celebrations.
The Sevdah Art House is located in the heart of Baščaršija in Sarajevo and has a total of 270m² of enclosed space and a courtyard with an area of 144m².
All this forms a unique composition of the ambience.
The interior design represents a historical evolution of Sevdah, from its beginnings to modern content, such as multimedia spaces dedicated to Sevdalinka authors, performers and other greats. Part of the space is planned for the organisation of thematic, scientific and professional Sevdalinka workshops. In each thematic area, there is multimedia, audio-visual content in which Sevdalinka songs can be listened to and video content related to Sevdah can be viewed.
In one part of the Art House, there is a library and a library, in which archive material and publications are located, which show with their contents the historical illustration of the development of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Sevdalinka.
The exhibits include prizes won, musical instruments, bilingual descriptions of each exhibit, authors, performers and musicians, as well as music catalogues, posters, archives and the like. In addition to all this, the Sevdah Café has been added – an area where you can linger and enjoy a real Bosnian coffee.