Worthing celebration of Ukrainian art, craft and history

The museum is delighted to be working with the Worthing Ukrainian Friends’ Network on the show featuring a group of artists with differing styles, mediums and backgrounds, all representing the best Ukraine has to offer with its rich and diverse cultural contribution to European culture over more than a thousand years of history. Bringing together the work of Ukrainian refugees in West Sussex, Ukrainian Renaissance: Art, Craft And History runs from Saturday, September 23 to Sunday, February 1 – a chance to celebrate a wealth of creativity which has greatly enhanced all our lives.

Yaroslava Matvieienko, one of the exhibition organisers, said: “We are so lucky to have this opportunity for four months, a great period of time. I do think someone up there has really blessed us that we can do this. I think the exhibition is important to us for several reasons. First of all first of all we are very lucky to have a chance to represent our art and our culture and to show the world what we can do. And it's wonderful to be able to do this at a city level, to be able to do this in the town museum. It is not just a small gathering in the community. But I think it's also really important to show that the refugees do also benefit the community. It is not just being on benefits and taking the taxes. This is a way of giving back to the community. This exhibition is a great addition to the positive image of refugees. We understand that many people are tired of war and don't understand why they have to take care of someone else, but this is us giving back. It's a way of saying thank you to Great Britain and to Sussex and to West Sussex and to Worthing. But for the artists it is also important that they have their works appreciated and seen and that people can react emotionally to what they have created. If you're an artist it is not about just making your work and having it alone at home with you. It's important to create something that you can then actually show people. And it also reminds people that we are still here. It is a reminder to people that we didn't make this choice to be here. It was not our choice to leave our homes and go somewhere else and then trouble everyone else with our problems. It really was about our safety.”

And the great thing is that “most people are very kind and very supportive and very helpful. They are understanding and it has been a very warm welcome. Me personally I've been here for a year; others have been here for different times.” The exhibition is a group of 16 artists: “Most of them are from Sussex but we have one from Essex but really we are very open to all newcomers.” The first show was in response to an open call back in February at Colonnade House: “We formed the group after that and had an exhibition in the Dome cinema.”