ART EXHITIONS IN UKRAINE

ART EXHITIONS IN UKRAINE. OUR EXPERIENCE Ukraine is one of the post-Soviet countries in Eastern Europe. Since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, the so called third sector only begins to develop here; many innovations and models of social work, which are common practices in the countries of Europe and USA, seem very new here. The exhibitions of hand-made art things made and presented by disabled, are an example. Non-profitable non-governmental organization Bells of Chernobyl in Kiev-Sviatoshyn district (www.dzwony.iatp.org.ua) organized during one year six exhibitions already. This branch of activities is new for the district: notwithstanding the fact that in Kiev-Sviatoshyn district (something like a county) work about 10 different NGOs, in most places nobody heard about this form of the assistance to disabled. What lessons learned we organizing our events? What could be usefull for European or American NGOs? We believe that because of, so to say, "fresh view" we can say something useful and you could use it in your practices. Art exhibitions in Ukraine are very strong tools to prevent suicide among disabled. Here, they live in isolation; they have neither Internet nor special schools to study. Mostly, they have no forum to be together. People, not seeing the solving of their problems, decide to finish their life in suicide. But, when they become the goal in their life, the amount of suicides decreases almost twice as it was in Boyarka (one of the towns of the district). Among disabled masters there were some very talented people. We proposed one of them to teach in group and very quickly the group of ten persons was formed. Especially, that is interesting for those who live in rural areas - usually they have no much places of entertainment. The most actual question is who would be invited to visit the exhibition. "Bells of Chernobyl..." invites pupils of the local schools; for them that is good and interesting lesson that you should not be upset and frustrated. Life continues. Visitors are literally astonished by the quality of hand-made things! As is well known, the pension of disabled is too low to allow buying expensive materials. So we found some busineses which specialize on textiles. They had given us the remains of their materials. That was enough to make some soft toys. Of course, old pillows and coats were used too. But, looking at the colourful toy presenting Ukrainian Cosack, you will never guess of what it is produced. Some "noble" napkins are made from threads gotten from the "humble" sweater. So disabled master had not pay for his materials. Please look at our site and find more about us. We encourage you put us questions; they are welcome! Alexander Wolf, Director of Bells of Chernobyl in Kiev-Sviatoshyn district www.dzwony.iatp.org.ua