By Joshua Robinson –
Creative arts charity, 6 million+, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year with a special project.
Dear Sunflowers will bring together artists, volunteers, refugees, and members of the Ukrainian community to create a musical performance and procession in Dewsbury and Holmfirth in June 2024 inspired by the life and work of Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko (1908-1997).
Maria Prymachenko was a self-taught artist, working in a folk-art style with vivid, colourful depictions of animals, plants, and people. She has been widely celebrated with her images appearing on Ukrainian stamps and coins.
Maria experienced many hardships in her life, living in poverty, having polio as a child, losing her husband and brother in World War 2, and living less than 20 miles away from Chernobyl, the site of the nuclear disaster in 1986.
Her work has come to the forefront with the war in Ukraine, with some of her paintings destroyed in bombing attacks and American artists using her image of a dove to call for peace.
Dear Sunflowers will combine music, puppetry, masks, banners, embroidery, and performance, with workshops led by artists from both local and Ukrainian backgrounds for refugees, local volunteers, and the Ukrainian community in Kirklees.
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The artworks of Prymachenko will provide an opportunity for Ukrainian group members to share their culture and a starting point for other group members to explore their own ideas and cultural backgrounds. The aim is to foster friendship and understanding between cultures, reducing isolation and loneliness and boosting social and emotional well being.
6 million+ is a registered charity based in Kirklees. They exchange and express stories of the Holocaust, and genocides, as well as contemporary persecution at home and abroad, challenging discrimination of any kind and working towards a kinder future.
May 2024 is 6 million+ 10th anniversary, with Dear Sunflowers at the heart of the celebration. The charity is currently working with volunteers, artists and refugees from the UK, Kurdistan (Iraq), Nigeria, Syria, Chad, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
The charity will also collaborate with the British Ukrainian Friendship Association and the local Ukrainian group Mukirka.
Project Leader Adam Strickson said: “At 6 million+, we have been delighted to get to know Ukrainian refugees over the past year. They have
brought so much talent and enthusiasm to our projects and now we want to celebrate their culture”.
6 million+ have partnered with Spacehive, a crowdfunding platform in the UK, to launch a campaign to raise funds from supporters.
Over £1000 has already been raised more support is needed to reach their goal of £17,000 by the end of April.
Check out to learn more: https://www.spacehive.com/dear-sunflowers
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