“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing.”
This phrase deeply speaks to me. I strongly believe that the inability to recognize beauty prevents one from having an outlook on the bright side of life. When you can’t see the meaning and values of life and the world, in general, you could get lost. This inability means a lack of sensitivity, which causes indifference, violence and inhumanity. Art contributes to developing sensitivity as a skill and teaches us to notice details. Such skills affect our mindset, and such a mindset would make this world a safe place, with no cruelty or vandalism and where all of God’s creation matters.
These are the values my projects are based on. And I see it as my personal mission: To help people to attain the skill of noticing beauty.
My art teacher taught me such things. And I consider this skill my superpower. It rescued me several times in very dark moments of my life.
As an example of the power of art, I can share my personal story. I’m from Ukraine and came to Germany in March 2022 as a thousand Ukrainians. I only had to cross the border with one small bag and a few clothes. I couldn’t carry all my stuff by myself, but the most important things for me in this bag were not my clothes; it was a few brushes, watercolours and an album. That’s how I started this new stage of my life, and art helped me get through it. I started working at Hillel and running my art nights and workshops; people loved it because they had a nice place to express their creativity and add something new to their routine. I got a lot of nice feedback, inspiring me to move on!
Now, I would like to move on to my projects. My projects exist because of the strong support from my organization — Hillel Deutschland. I’m very grateful to my team for their help and faith in me and my ideas. I’ve organized over 10 art events in the last year and a half.
