Healing Through Art - Artwork by the Children of Ukraine

Healing Through Art

Ukrainian children's artwork in response to the war

March 1-30th at CultureVerse Gallery

Opening Reception March 18th 1-3pm during Youth Art Walk as part of Youth Art Month

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About the Show:

In March 2022, artist and art educator Nataliia Pavliuk and her daughter Yustyna started an art program for displaced children in Ukraine.  Many refugees from harder hit Eastern Ukraine escaped to Lviv, where they both live. Initially, Nataliia and Yustyna traveled to hospitals, community centers and schools to conduct classes. As news spread about their healing workshops, people began to contact them. These children all have unique stories regarding their stress, loss, and sadness related to the trauma of war and relocation.  Art gives them a way to process their emotions.

The artists posted about their work on Facebook, which drew attention from the Ukrainian community in the US. They were able to fly to Chicago where the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art hosted an exhibition titled “Children of War.” Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C., an arts academy in Arkansas, and CultureVerse Gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan are among the other institutions hosting this program's exhibitions.

CultureVerse is honored to host this second exhibition of “Healing Through Art” throughout the month of March in our physical gallery at 309 S Main St Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Explore the virtual gallery anytime below:

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"The Same Shoes"

E.I. Tietz, I. Bondarenko, D. Bowden

Also on exhibit is "The Same Shoes", a collaborative Installation by the ClayWork Studio Artists (Liz Tietz, Irina Bondarenko, Darcy Rielle Bowden). A hand-colored flag and drawings are done by students of the Ukrainian immersion school "Ridna Shkola", Warren, MI. Installation in Remembrance of Ukrainian Children killed in the Russian invasion

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Over recent years, E. Ingrid Tietz’s Innocence Project (eingridtietzart.com) has focused on the innocence and fragility of children with sculptures based on slip‐cast porcelain pieces derived from infant and children’s clothing. Fragility and resilience are a continuum. While children are indeed resilient, their resilience has been assailed in many ways throughout the world, currently in Ukraine.
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“The Same Shoes,” (V. Zelenskyy to V. Orbán on 03.25.22) is a collaborative effort by Clay Work Studio (Director: Y.K. Lee) ceramicists, to focus on the current plight and death of Ukrainian children brought on by the Russian invasion. The emotional trauma surviving children experience from conflict
challenges their resilience and casts a lasting shadow over their lives.
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The Ukrainian flag (I. Bondarenko, D. Bowden) was hand‐colored by elementary school‐aged children at the Ridna Shkola Ukrainian School in Warren, Michigan. The flag is a backdrop for 109 white porcelain children’s shoes (E.I. Tietz) representing the innocence and fragility of Ukrainian children killed as of 03.25.22, the 42nd day of the invasion. Stuffed animals, also made of porcelain and children’s toys, scattered amongst rubble complete the installation. Since the start of the Russian invasion at least 487 innocent children have been confirmed dead and 954 injured. Nearly two thirds of of ~7.5 million children in Ukraine have been displaced by the war.

Healing Through Art and "The Same Shoes" are on display at CultureVerse Gallery through March 30th, 2023

Explore a scan of the physical gallery below:

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