Rochdale Borough Council - Central Library

About this Exhibition

The city of Lviv in Ukraine is where we meet most of our young artists who contribute their work to The Sunflower Dreams Project.

Lviv it turns out is a "Sister City" or "Twinned City" with at least 18 other cities around the world, from Poland to Croatia, Spain to Canada. It turns out the Borough of Rochdale, a town in the county of Lancashire, to the NE of Manchester, is also a "Sister" of Lviv.

The Ukrainian diaspora community of Rochdale has been active in raising awareness of Ukraine for many years and since 2022 has taken in many Ukrainian families fleeing the atrocities of the war of conquest of their home of Ukraine.

Our exhibition ran from 16th May to the week of the 20th June, 2026. A sample of photographs from the opening of our exhibition "Sunflower Dreams Project - Ukrainian Children Tell Their Stories in Art". We were pleased to welcome Mayor Janet Emsley and her Consort Ken Emsley, the Chair if AUGB Rochdale, Olya Kurtianyk and Principal of the Ukrainian Centre in Manchester, Kateryna Tyshkul, who brought children and parents from the Saturday School. Liverpool poet and member of the Liverbards Poetry Society, Zonked read from his poems that he wrote specially for several of the paintings on display. This exhibition is continuing on display in the Rochdale Central Library, in the ground floor of Rochdale Borough Council central offices until 20th June. Huge thanks to Benny Roo Putterworth for organising and supporting this exhibition. Rock star!