TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — As the world watches the war in the Ukraine students here in the Big Bend are getting a lesson through art on some of the pain felt by Ukrainians through the years.
"So we're bringing about Holocaust and Holodomor awareness," Kelly Bowen, curator of the Two Regimes Collection said.
Leon County students gathered at The Florida Capitol for "A Lesson told Through Art."
The Two Regimes focuses on the life and work of a Ukrainian mother daughter duo surviving the Holodomor and Holocaust.
The Holocaust was the genocide of millions of Jews in World War II. The Holodomor was the starvation of millions of Ukrainians in Soviet Ukraine.
Bowen says that history through art reaches students on a level that they might otherwise get in a traditional classroom setting.
"What we have found on this collection is that it does reach students on an emotional level. If you can reach students on an emotional level, you have an opportunity to help create change," Bowen said.
"I think the artwork is something that -art in general- is something that we use to give sort of an eloquence and significance to our own emotions," Christopher Lee, a senior at Chiles High School said.
Lee added he feels that the collection paints a more intimate experience and makes the concept of war all-the-more real.
A similar feeling felt by Avery Heller, a junior at Chiles High School.
"Being here makes you feel connected to the people; especially with what's going on currently in Ukraine," Heller said.
Paintings in the collection were discovered outside of Tallahassee in the year 2000. It is considered a salvaged Florida resource.
Chiles sophomore Shao Yang believes this piece of history serves as a great teaching tool.
"I think it really is a blessing for us to have this sense of history and expression from such like a pivotal moment in history," Yang said.
