In a painting by 13-year-old Evelina, a girl in a children’s hospital looks out a window as a plane drops bombs just outside. A stuffed bunny, colored pencils and a stack of books sit nearby.
In 12-year-old Roman’s painting, a soldier in a trench hides his face in fear as a city behind him goes up in smoke.
A painting by 11-year-old Zlata evokes Van Gogh’s “Café Terrace at Night,” showing a woman walking down a cobblestone street in Lviv holding an umbrella. A Ukrainian flag flies high on a building in the background, and yellow light shines through windows. There are no signs of war or violence to be seen.
Being a child in the midst of war is unspeakably traumatizing.
A new exhibition of paintings created by Ukrainian children showcases their experiences with violence and their hopes for the future. Forbes Library’s Hosmer Gallery is hosting “Ukraine’s Children Paint Their World,” a curated collection of paintings by Ukrainian children in the wake of the Russian-Ukraine war, through Monday, Nov. 30, with an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The participating children created their paintings through an art program led by the mother-daughter duo Nataliia and Yustyna Pavliuk. Those paintings travel to exhibitions around the world through the Sunflower Dreams Project, a volunteer-run organization in Seattle.
“They didn’t necessarily specifically say, ‘Paint the war.’ They said, ‘Paint your hopes, your dreams, what you want for peace.’ And then, kids being kids, they reacted in different ways [to] what they saw,” said Robert Freedman, who curated the show. “Some went specifically to images of war. […] Some painted their pets, their backyard, their family being together.”
Freedman chose about two dozen paintings to display from more than 200.
Some pieces show images of hope and resilience in the face of war. In a painting by a child named Melaniya (no age given), an artist wearing blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, paints sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower, onto a canvas. They stand in the middle of a street filled with crumbling buildings, a pop of color in a desolate landscape.
Since the project began, some of the participating children have gone on to art schools in Ukraine.
“I like to say, ‘I can’t even draw a circle.’ And what they do is just incredible,” Freedman said. “Maybe some of these children will fall in love with art and painting, and maybe they will become full-fledged artists. I don’t know, but it’s been amazing just to see the work that some of them have done.”
Viewers can learn additional details about the children through notes on some of the paintings: 8-year-old Lilija’s house was destroyed by Russian forces; 6-year-old Anna, whose father was killed in the war, “loves to paint, especially angels. Anna prays each night that the angels bring her father to her in her dreams.”
Freedman pointed out a work that he finds especially powerful: “Flowers for Grandma,” a colorful and abstract piece. Veronika Kulikova, the 10-year-old artist, was the only person in her family who survived when a tank fired on her apartment building. Her family members piled on top of her to shield her from the blast. A note on the painting details her injuries: “A shell fragment struck her head, her left thumb was torn off, her right arm became partially paralyzed, and she lost her memory. She was on the verge of life and death.”
“Veronika now lives in Lviv,” the note added. “She loves to finger paint.”
When Freeman read that last line, he was moved. “I said, ‘OK, well, that’s about all I can handle,’” he recalled.
This is not the first time that Freedman has brought creative work about the Russia-Ukraine war to Northampton. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Freedman, a retired postal service worker who’s now a SAG-AFTRA actor, was filming a movie at New England Studios in Devens. During the filming process, he had a lot of time to wait when he wasn’t working on a scene, so he read about the invasion. It gave him the idea to stage a show about Ukraine in Northampton.
One thing led to another, and Freedman met playwright Sasha Denisova and other Ukrainians. In 2024, he directed a production of Denisova’s play “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion” at 33 Hawley.
Freedman’s artist friend Sandy Walsh later learned about the Sunflower Dreams Project and reached out to Brian Foote, director of arts and culture for the City of Northampton, to ask about bringing to life an exhibition of the children’s paintings. It took a few attempts before Freedman was able to secure a gallery space that would show them, but now, they’re on display at Forbes for the rest of the month.
“The people in Ukraine who I know — they thanked me and thanked me and thanked me. They don’t want anyone to forget them,” Freedman said. “And one woman said, ‘It’s not just an exhibit. You’re showing Ukrainian children, language, culture,’ and that’s very important to them because that’s all in jeopardy at this point.”
“Even after all the time I’ve spent with these paintings,” he added, “I still get a little bit choked up when I realize the stories behind them.”
Admission is free. Forbes Library is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The gallery is on the second floor. For more information about the Sunflower Dreams Project, visit sunflowerdreamsproject.org.
