“Shards of Childhood in the Tote”: Ukrainian Children’s Art Exhibition for Refugee Week
As part of Refugee Week, the Ukraine Appeal Charity and the Sunflower Ukrainian Supplementary School are proud to present a powerful art exhibition created by displaced Ukrainian children. This year’s Refugee Week programme is co‑organised by The Open University, MK Gallery, and Community Action: MK, and includes a free film screening in the Sky Room exploring real refugee experiences.
Free tickets are available here: https://mkgallery.org/event/refugee-week-fremont-18/
About the Exhibition: “Shards of Childhood in the Tote”
For many Ukrainian children, the answer was found in a simple tote bag — hastily packed during evacuation, filled not only with essentials but with memories, fears, and fragments of a life interrupted. Inside those bags were birthdays cut short, lullabies drowned out by sirens, and the quiet hope that one day they would return home.
The artworks in this exhibition are more than illustrations. They are pieces of a stolen childhood, carried across borders, through train stations and bomb shelters, and finally released onto paper.
Each drawing was created by a child who has lived through profound loss. These young artists did not imagine fire, fear, or shattered windows — they witnessed them. Many spent months, even years, in makeshift shelters: school classrooms turned into dormitories, kindergartens turned into temporary homes.
And yet, in the midst of upheaval, they drew.
With pencils and paints, they expressed what words could not hold — grief, resilience, courage, and the fragile hope that still survives within them. Their willingness to share these memories is both brave and deeply moving.
An Invitation to Reflect
This exhibition invites visitors to look closely, listen gently, and honour what these children carried — not only in their totes, but in their hearts.
By sharing their stories through art, they remind us that even in the darkest moments, creativity becomes a lifeline, a voice, and a way to reclaim pieces of childhood that war tried to take away.
