On December 8, 2023, on the occasion of the 131st anniversary of the birth of the artist and teacher Oleksandr Osmerkin, the opening of the exhibition of works by students of the art school named after O.O.Osmerkin from the city of Kropyvnytskyi "DESPITE EVERYTHING" was held in the O.O.Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum as part of art project "Gallery of Children's Art".
    This year's exhibition with the symbolic name "DESPITE EVERYTHING" is special, because the student works presented at it were created precisely in the museum, in the exhibition halls of which school classes are held from October 18, 2023. The museum, in the conditions of martial law, in which we all found ourselves due to the full-scale Russian invasion, became a real art shelter for young artists and their mentors, who, even during the air raid, are able to continue to master the knowledge of fine arts in the basement of the museum, designated as a shelter , and in which the exhibition exposition is placed. Actually, the museum is now in shelter, but two memorial objects nevertheless became the decoration of the exhibition - an easel from the workshop of the artist Oleksandr Osmerkin, on which children's drawings are now exhibited, and a flashlight from the house of the architect Yakiv Pauchenko, near which a kind of feedback poster is hung, where you can not only write, but also draw your impression of the exhibition.
    It is quite symbolic that this very day the Kropyvnytskyi painter, a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Yurii Vintenko, visited the museum and presented to the museum collection the author's painting "The Lantern of Yakiv Pauchenko" with a colorful image of a memorial lantern, which he painted in the museum in January of this year during the Art studies with the participation of students and teachers of the fine arts department of the children's art school, where he has been successfully working for many years. This ancient lantern symbolically unites generations and with its colorful light indicates the true life and artistic path of the creative descendants of Oleksandr Osmerkin, whose numerous photos everyone had the opportunity to view in the album of the photo exhibition "The Life of an artist in photographs" exhibited during the event.
    During the presentation, the director of the art school, Hanna Tymofiienko, rightly remarked: "The exhibition in the Oleksandr Osmerkin Memorial Art Museum on the birthday of the outstanding artist is always an exciting event for students of the art school. And this year's exhibition is special because it was created within the walls of the museum, which has become a second cozy home for our students. The teaching staff, student and parent communities are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to work fruitfully and creatively. The exhibition of children's works under the eloquent slogan "Despite everything" evokes positive emotions and encourages bright thoughts, instilling confidence in the victory of goodness, beauty and art."
    The exposition of the exhibition consists of more than 70 creative works of students of grades 1-4 and the preparatory group, aged from 10 to 16 years old, made under the guidance of teachers: Hanna Tymofiienko, Tetiana Bondar, Iryna Zantaria, Yuliia Zakharina, Liubov Kurianova, Oleksandra Kuznetsova, Polina Odud, Volodymyr Plitin, Ihor Tymofiienko and Roman Tkachenko. The presented works - still lifes, portraits, interior and plot compositions are the result of students' performance of educational tasks related to the formation of artistic and spatial thinking, compositional culture, sense of color, knowledge of artistic techniques. The drawings made with pencil, pastel, gouache and watercolor paints vividly reflect the creative potential of each author. All works are distinguished by a sincere desire to learn about the world through visual arts. But the drawings of the youngest students, dedicated to the heroic present of Ukraine, are especially impressive. It was not for nothing that the preparatory group led by Iryna Zantaria, who excelled in education, was tasked with painting military helmets and projectile fragments to the order of the 3rd separate special purpose regiment named after Prince Sviatoslav the Brave for a charity event for the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And the exhibition is complemented by photos of students and teachers of the school in the exhibition halls of the museum, who study and work under martial law despite everything with faith in the Victory of Ukraine.
    The young artists were congratulated with the opening ceremony by the chief custodian of the funds of the Museum of Musical Culture named after Karol Szymanowski, Olena Klassova, who emphasized the importance of organizing exhibitions of children's drawings that radiate optimism, which is so necessary in our turbulent times, and the well-known Kropyvnytskyi artist, leading researcher of the museum, Olha Krasnopolska, who showed the students the poster of the art school's graduation evening in 2000, which was recently presented to the museum by the teacher of the school Oleksandra Kuznetsova, made by the Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadiezhdin, who taught at the art school at the time, because it was in that year that she graduated from school, and told them about how came to study drawing and how she decided to choose art as her life's work.
    All participants of the exhibition received from the museum as a gift thematic booklets with color reproductions of drawings. The staff of the school was presented with a certificate of appreciation for creative cooperation with the museum, special words of gratitude were addressed to the teacher of the school, Polina Odud, who designed the students' drawings for display at the exhibition. And the first visitor to the exhibition was the neighborhood red cat, beloved by all the students of the art school, who, as if stepping out of the presented poster, visits them every day during classes in the museum and whom they fondly depict in their drawings, in anticipation of the graduation evening in 2024 in the museum of the artist, whose school bears the name.