The following two articles were originally published by LMU (Feb 6, 2024 and written by Selina Haroon) and The Los Angeles Loyolan (Jan 30, 2024 and written by Thomas Zaterka) respectively.

Exhibition Highlights How Children Process War and Trauma Through Art

Exhibition of Ukrainian Children's Art

During a time of suffering, grief, and war, raw artistic expression from the most vulnerable among us can facilitate a deeper and more complex understanding of the issues at hand. During the last two years of the war in Ukraine, displaced child refugees have endured immense trauma, a perspective shared in the exhibition “Children Draw War, Not Flowers,” on view through February 16th in the William H. Hannon Library. Located on the first floor of the library, the exhibition presents a series of drawings created by Ukrainian children as a part of their response to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. The exhibition is a collaboration between faculty and students from LMU Studio Arts and Marital and Family/Art Therapy (MFT) departments, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute, and Ulia Gosart, a Russian-born scholar affiliated with San Jose University. Jessica Bianchi, a professor of marital and family/art therapy, was one of the faculty members who oversaw the project, alongside Terry Lenihan, director of art education and a professor of studio arts. Both faculty members had their students participate in the exhibition, including creating reflective pieces of their own and assisting with the installation. “When viewing the children’s art, one becomes immediately aware of the destruction and atrocity of war,” Bianchi shared. “The art has no filter, no propaganda, and appears to show a perspective of how war is unnatural and unintegrated into what a child might expect in their world.”

The drawings that comprise the exhibition were part of a creative competition for young children from internally displaced communities within Ukraine to be given a space for personal reflection and processing during an immensely difficult time filled with grief and loss. The exhibition further highlights how the creative and reflective process of drawing became an opportunity for many Ukrainian children, uprooted from their usual life by the war, to share their pain by telling their stories. As the exhibition states: The children drew Ukraine – the way it is today and the way they dream of it. Creating art in response to experiences is a foundational component of the MFT program at LMU. “There is a breadth of research that indicates that community art-making during times of crisis can create a sense of connection and support amongst those facing a crisis,” said Bianchi. “The many Ukrainian symbols used in the drawings seem to illustrate a similar sense of connection and support, one that hopefully provides opportunities for resiliency among the children.” In addition to the series of drawings, the exhibition also includes a 30-foot installation piece with reproductions of the children’s drawings alongside artwork created by the LMU studio arts and art therapy students in response to the children’s creations. The installation piece illustrates how each student might envision creating a space for children to process their experiences. The exhibition also further highlights the therapeutic potential of artistic expression and emphasizes how creating art serves as a non-verbal language for supporting complex emotions and experiences.

“When viewing the children’s art, I think one becomes immediately aware of the destruction and atrocity of war.” Jessica Bianchi

By bringing the exhibition to LMU, the collaboration allowed LMU students to host an exhibition that gives them a deeper understanding of international perspectives and augments their academic careers in meaningful ways. “This global collaboration broadens the experiences our students encounter and the insights they develop as they prepare to impact an increasingly interdependent world,” said Lenihan. Bianchi continued, “I did not want my students to interpret the art but wanted them to be with the art. I wanted them to practice their clinical skills by imagining they were with the children who created these images. The ability to sit with our clients and be present with them in all their experiences, including trauma, is an important practice as a therapist and one that can empower our clients to focus their attention on their personal healing.”

The Ukrainian Children's Art Exhibition brings images of the war to LMU

The Ukrainian Children's Art Exhibition is set up in LMU’s William H. Hannon Library. Serhiy Hovorun selected and brought the artwork back from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Children's Art Exhibition has been set up in LMU’s William H. Hannon Library since the beginning of the spring 2024 semester. It is a display of the terrors of war, its impact on children and the therapeutic qualities of art. Serhiy Hovorun, professor of theology; Ulia Gosart, former professor at LMU; Jessica Bianchi, assistant professor in the department of marital and family therapy; and Teresa Lenihan, professor of Studio Arts, came together to set up and display the exhibit. Hovorun and Gosart are from the same city, Cherkasy, Ukraine, and were at the heart of the project. Throughout Ukraine's war with Russia, thousands of refugees have migrated to the Cherkasy Oblast, a region in the central part of Ukraine. In an effort to support the children and give them a voice in the conflict they’ve been thrown into, a drawing contest was held in local libraries. Hovorun returned home to Ukraine over the summer, actually visiting the front lines and experiencing the war first hand. Gosart told him about the drawing competition and they worked together to bring an exhibition to LMU. Hovorun went to a library in Ukraine where all the pictures were held and selected some of the most striking works to bring on the plane here.

Hovorun returned home to Ukraine over the summer, actually visiting the front lines and experiencing the war first hand. Gosart told him about the drawing competition and they worked together to bring an exhibition to LMU. Hovorun went to a library in Ukraine where all the pictures were held and selected some of the most striking works to bring on the plane here. “Libraries were working in Cherkasy city and its neighboring regions, and we ran a children’s drawing competition … So we got art supplies, bought prizes and the competition went across 40 public libraries in the region, primarily village libraries, and it produced over 450 images ... I wanted to share these pictures with an American audience,” said Gosart. It is a striking collection of images. Participants from ages six to 16 came together to depict the war through their eyes. With its display in the Hannon Library, the devastating realities of the war are brought to the University."Why do I see war and not flowers" is a piece by 16-year-old Oleksandr P.

“There's an image of a little girl sitting and holding her head in her hands and trying to close her ears because of the sirens. I've heard those sirens. I call my friends and actually months ago they [asked] ‘Do you want to listen to the sirens?’ It's night in Ukraine and I listen to the siren; it's very unpleasant,” expressed Gosart.

“[The exhibition] is the fruit of cooperation with the art therapy program at LMU ... The art that we're exhibiting may help [LMU students] understand the situation, but it also [helps the Ukrainian children] overcome, to reconcile themselves with the tragedy, with the trauma, and to somehow overcome the trauma. So all those ideas are behind this exhibition, and it's really a result of synergy across the university,” commented Hovorun. The Ukrainian Children’s Art Exhibition is scheduled to remain up until Feb. 7. LMU is also hosting Ukrainian Day @ LMU on Wednesday, Jan. 31, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Hannon Library. There, Gosart will speak about her experiences with the war and Hovorun will detail life on the front lines.

Watch interviews from the Event:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1HRhQh4nns