Our educational art program "Artsvit for Kids" has ended and it's time to present its results, so we invite you to the exhibition opening, which will take place on December 7.
This year's course was called "Theatre Stories" - the children learned about acting in its various manifestations: they learned to express their emotions with their bodies, work with associations, invent stage images and apply makeup, create sets and costumes, make their own puppets and even stage shadow plays. By the way, guests of the opening will become spectators of two children's plays and various theatrical props created during the classes, namely sketches of costumes, imaginary posters for performances and films, puppets for puppet theater and self-made sets.
WHEN: Saturday, December 7, 2:00 PM (for children), 3:00 PM (for parents)
WHERE: Artsvit Gallery, Krutogornyy Uzviz 21a. Entrance from Uspenskaya Square
The exhibition will run until December 20. Admission is free!
Authors and teachers of the program: Alina Stefan and Yulia Grishina
Project coordinator: Stanislav Pyvonos
Design: Olena Misyura
Photo: Olya Vasylets
The educational platform "Artsvit for Kids" has been operating since 2014. Each of its iterations touches on new topics and techniques, but one thing remains unchanged - the desire to open the multifaceted world of art to children and refute the idea that it is boring or difficult to perceive. We are convinced that through creativity, a child gets to know himself better and acquires various skills that are useful in adult life and any profession, even technical.
However, we would like to emphasize that this project is not an academic education, our teachers do not teach children to draw. Communication is an important factor in the program, we want to integrate children and adolescents into the artistic community, establish a dialogue, and refute the idea of art as something boring and difficult to understand. We believe that the younger generation deserves to have a broad worldview, and art and culture in general not only enriches aesthetically, but also educates conscious citizens.
We noticed that in conversations, children often touch on the topics of war, death, and nuclear threat. At the beginning of the program in the fall of 2023, teachers noticed detachment, aggression, isolation, and a turn to dark colors in the drawings. However, those children who regularly attended classes became more proactive, included in the process, and interacted more actively with others in the team.
We will continue to create a safe and supportive environment on the basis of the Artsvit Gallery, where children can express their emotions, relieve stress and develop their creative abilities. Through art classes, we help children overcome the traumatic experience of war and contribute to their social and emotional rehabilitation, as well as give them creative tools for learning about the world and themselves.
Teacher Alina Stefan: “I see how important it is for parents to take their children to art events, and their efforts to preserve a normal childhood world for their children even in the midst of war, when reality is collapsing. At first I thought, what can art do when people are dying, artillery and missiles are destroying cities and villages, people are losing the most necessary things and do not feel safe? Now I have realized that my experience as a children's writer, my experience as a teacher, my experience as a doctor - all of it together helps a lot - generates strength, and I can help children, adults, wounded soldiers, I learn to do it better with each meeting, with each group, with each participant, and now I see how important it is here in Dnipro. How people smile when looking at their or their children's artistic achievements, how the wrinkles between their eyebrows smooth out, how they become a little less tense at the exhibition of their children's drawings. I see how children calm down and become less anxious, holding a paintbrush, plasticine, cardboard, oil crayon in their hands. I see how art pulls out those who are "drowning" in the daily trauma of loss, when yesterday you bought felt-tip pens in a store, and today it was destroyed by an explosion. And children drive by and see every day how their everyday life is destroyed. And then in the class at the shelter, they draw, carve, do shadow puppetry, or make up a story, and create art and life from the debris they just drove past. I want the world to hear the voices of these children.”
