{"id":1987,"date":"2025-04-21T17:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T00:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:44:28","slug":"uconn-children-draw-war-not-flowers-exhibition-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/uconn-children-draw-war-not-flowers-exhibition-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Babbidge Library Exhibit Offers Powerful Images of War, and Hope, Created by Ukrainian Children, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on UConn Today<\/a>\u00a0on Apr 17, 2025 and written by Jaclyn Severance.<\/p>\n

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Babbidge Library Exhibit Offers Powerful Images of War, and Hope, Created by Ukrainian Children<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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“Children Draw War, Not Flowers” will be on display at the Homer Babbidge Library through August 1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘!Stop the War!,’ a, original drawing by 15-year-old Viktoriia Z. from Ukraine, from the ‘Children Draw War, Not Flowers’ exhibit on display at the Babbidge Library until August 1, 2025. (Contributed image)<\/p><\/div>

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In the drawing, two little children hold hands, the taller figure with shoulder-length hair.<\/p>\n

The shorter figure has hair cropped short, and holds a teddy bear in their other hand, one of the toy\u2019s eyes missing and portrayed as an X.<\/p>\n

Between the two is an umbrella, seemingly their only protection from what\u2019s falling from the sky above them \u2013 a cluster of ominous black bombs.<\/p>\n

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\u2018With faith in victory,\u2019 an original drawing by Anastasiia B., a 14-year-old from Ukraine, from the \u2018Children Draw War, Not Flowers\u2019 exhibit, on display at the Babbidge Library until August 1, 2025. (Contributed image)<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

The umbrella is striped \u2013 yellow, blue, yellow \u2013 in the colors of the flag of the artist\u2019s home country: Ukraine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a simple drawing, but poignant, and made ever more so by the fact that the artist who created the work, entitled \u201cWith faith in victory,\u201d was only 14 years old when they drew it in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

This drawing, and many others like it \u2013 created by Ukrainian children during the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War \u2013 are on display at theUConn Library<\/a>\u2019s Homer Babbidge Library as part of the \u201cChildren Draw War, Not Flowers\u201d exhibit, which opened on April 8.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2022, the Cherkasy Regional Universal Scientific Library, funded by the School of Information at San Jose State University in California, helda drawing competition in 40 public regional libraries<\/a>in communities where over 220,000 displaced Ukrainians resided.<\/p>\n

Children from the ages of 6 to 18 created more than 450 drawings documenting their experiences of war, trauma, and hope. Those drawings are now part of \u201cChildren Draw War, Not Flowers,\u201d which has traveled to a number of institutions but will reside at UConn Storrs until later this summer.<\/p>\n

Its stop at UConn was made possible by a collaboration withUlia Gosart<\/a>from San Jose State University, an assistant professor, scholar, writer, and human rights activist who received her bachelor\u2019s degree from Kiev University of Arts in Ukraine and her master\u2019s in library and information science from Southern Connecticut State University, according to Jean Cardinale \u201904 MS, head of communication and marketing for the UConn Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Gosart has been supporting Ukrainian libraries by raising awareness and fundraising through programming, including curating this traveling exhibit,\u201d says Cardinale. \u201cShe supports her community engaged in war through the power of libraries, and the UConn Library was honored to be asked to take part in her important work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cChildren Draw War, Not Flowers\u201d exhibit includes 70 drawings depicting weapons, loss, soldiers, and destroyed buildings and artifacts. But the drawings also show symbols of hope and pride. The blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag are abundant. Angels hover over Ukrainian soldiers. Sunflowers and storks, images of national solidarity, hang over depictions of war.<\/p>\n

The exhibit\u2019s goal, explains Cardinale, is to help visitors gain greater understanding of the realities Ukrainian people \u2013 and especially Ukrainian children \u2013 face in the midst of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, living through war is something most of us have not had to experience, and we are geographically so far away that it\u2019s easy to disassociate from what is happening,\u201d Cardinale says. \u201cWhen you see these pieces where children have drawn themselves amid bombings, fires, and saying goodbye to their homes and their families, you see the trauma that effects children of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit at the Babbidge Library also includes drawings fromthe Mia Farrow Collection<\/a>, donated to the UConn Library\u2019s Archives & Special Collections in 2009, that were made by refugee children escaping war and ethnic cleansing at the Djabal Refugee Camp in Eastern Chad in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Archives & Special Collections has many collections that focus on documenting human rights violations and struggles for social justice in the United States and internationally,\u201d says Cardinale. \u201cTheir guiding principles are to enable us to understand the past to inspire our future. Displaying these two collections of drawings together shows parallels in how children have used art to express their feelings during war.\u201d<\/p>\n

For children who may not yet know who to talk with about their feelings, art encourages them to explore their emotions and perceptions through their creativity, Cardinale notes. The images these children have created during two different conflicts, occurring decades apart, show the similarities of their struggles in a powerful and visual way.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Ukraine will win!\u2019 an original drawing by Yana Kh., an 8-year-old from Ukraine, from the \u2018Children Draw War, Not Flowers\u2019 exhibit, on display at the Babbidge Library until August 1, 2025. (Contributed image)<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

The exhibit also serves as a reminder that Ukrainian and Ukrainian American students at UConn continue to feel the ongoing impact of the war that may not always be clearly visible to the community at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had the opportunity to connect with the Ukrainian Students Association here at UConn, and at the exhibit\u2019s opening reception, they brought their personal experiences of family members directly affected by the war,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, it also serves as a reminder that our students may be experiencing many different challenges that we don\u2019t see and deserve some grace during this stressful time of the semester.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren Draw War, Not Flowers\u201d will be on display at the Gallery on the Plaza at the Homer Babbidge Library in Storrs through August 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

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To view drawings from the \u201cChildren Draw War, Not Flowers\u201d collection online, please visit Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online at<\/em>gallery.sucho.org\/collections<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information about this and other exhibits at the UConn Library, as well as collections maintained by the library\u2019s Archives & Special Collections, visit<\/em>lib.uconn.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Watch interviews and poetry readings from the event below:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n