"The Globe of the Black Sea": the exhibition of the different maps of the Black Sea done by kids opened in Odesa

The Black Sea Globe art and science school has come to an end, and on Saturday 13 January, its students presented their works at the opening ceremony of their own exhibition in Odesa, in the Dialogues creative space.

The school was launched with the support of the EU-UNDP project EU4EMBLAS in December 2023. It lasted for three weeks in two cities at once – Odesa and Mykolaiv. Its goal was to bring children together to get new knowledge about the geography and biology of the Black Sea, to develop creativity and to act as art therapy, as well as to communicate in person.

A total of 29 children from Odesa and Mykolaiv took part in the project. The participants were from 8 to 16 years old. Accompanied by leading Ukrainian scientists and together with professional artists, each participant has created not just an artwork, but a real cartographic image of the Black Sea on a topic of their choice, which reflected the key moments of its history, present and future. They include the geological history of the Black Sea, its colonisation, historically important trade routes, fish migration, important cetacean habitats, marine pollution and much more.

As a result, the exhibition included 31 works in two techniques – graphics and floristry. The works turned out to be truly amazing and diverse, and each student made every effort to display his/her map in as much detail as possible.

We would like to express our gratitude to the scientists of the Ukrainian Center of the Ecology of the Sea and Institute of Marine biology, who managed to convey to the children the true scientific value of maps in our lives, their basic components and purpose. Special thanks go to the artistic mentors Yulia Gurieva, Olena Tkachenko, Svitlana Svitlana, Olena Selchonok, who taught kids new artistic techniques. We are also incredibly grateful to Olena Velyka, the project’s art curator, for once again combining the two components of science and creativity, as always creating a warm atmosphere of unity and trust, and helping to unlock the creative potential of each participant.

The exhibition will last until 26 January 2023, opening hours are from Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 to 18:00. Address: Dialogues creative space, 2 Soborna Square, Odesa. Entrance is free. Welcome to the wonderful world of cartography of our Black Sea, created by children!

And soon the exhibition will be opened by the pupils from Mykolaiv in their hometown!

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