"Art Which Saves" in London

Nataliia and Yustyna Pavliuk in collaboration with curator Karina Tertychna present an exhibition of their "Art Which Saves" Programme at St.Art Gallery, Eastcastle Street, London

General Opening to the Public 11am Friday, 16th January 2026

Our Vision

The Olena Zelenska Foundation, see details here, estimated that 44% of Ukrainian children suffer from PTSD, some studies say the number is much higher, for instance the study by Gradus Research, mentioned on Counteroffensive and ukrinform, states that 75% of children have PTSD symptoms.

Our vision is to use our platform, bringing the art of the Ukrainian children who are attending art healing projects, to raise awareness of the plight of the children, and to encourage practical solutions for more and affordable access to child mental health care for Ukraine's traumatised Children of War.

We are the Sunflower Dreams Project. Our project is a series of exhibitions in the European Union, the United Kingdom and North America. It is created and supported exclusively by a team of multinational volunteers, all of whom have served in Ukraine, since the full-scale war started in 2022. We come from many places: we are Czech, German, Ukrainian, English, Scottish, Canadian, Spanish, American, Romanian, and Croatian.

Our Mission

As long as this war continues, we find the artwork of Ukrainian children and bring it to the rest of the world to tell their stories.

After all, each piece of art is a small piece of a child’s soul. We are determined to aid as many children as possible by lobbying for other countries to provide resources to support children's mental health in Ukraine.

We are sharing a small selection of the paintings the children made since the full-scale invasion of 2022. With art healing sessions happening several times a week, there are thousands of paintings, of which a few hundreds were chosen to be shown, some of which we shared online. The paintings are varied, a reflection of the children's own ages and experiences. Most of them are internally displaced from the East and South of the country, but all of them are affected in a way or another by the war.

In addition, to better understand the context, we would suggest having a look at the Map page, to see where many of the children once called home. Some of the paintings' stories are shared on our Blog, so do come back to read them, as more and more are going to be shared.

We shared snippets from most of our exhibitions and events, which, as of January 2026, are very close to the 30 mark.

Our first event took place in Prague, the Czech Republic, in April 2024. It was a small event, but it was the catalyst we needed to know we are on the right track. The children's artwork was proving to be something people wanted to see and also they wanted to help supporting the work done in Ukraine, to help the children. In 2024 many exhibitions followed, in the US, Poland, Austria, and Canada.

2025 started with a significant event held at the Scottish Parliament, in Edinburgh where lawmakers and members of Scotland's Consular community and Edinburgh Council were able to see first-hand the impact the war of aggression has on young children. It was closely followed by the exhibition at Portsmouth Cathedral, one of the biggest so far with 200 original artworks on display and a special Evensong for Peace joined by a Ukrainian Choir: "Two Colours" on the third anniversary of the full invasion, the 24th February. There were many more exhibitions, expanding in new countries, January was Denmark, then exhibitions in Zaragoza in Spain, and four in Germany, besides staging more events and exhibitions in the US and Canada and returning to Scotland in October. A special mention should go to two events in the UK, Liverpool Parish Church and Oxford University, as the exhibitions and the associated events led to poets writing pieces in response to the paintings they saw on display. You can read a selection of the poems in our Reflections page.

We hope to see you at one of our events in 2026.

Our work has appeared on local, regional, and national TV, as well as major newsprint and social media. Check the interviews various members of our team gave to outlets such as the BBC, Scotland's Sunday Post and STV, Channel 7 [Lviv, Ukraine], Liverpool Live Radio, Seattle's KOMO4 News and many more.