Artists for Ukraine’s first public event will be an art exhibition and emergency art sale to take place on Thursday, March 24th at 571 Oxford Road Gallery and Open Hand Open Space Studios on the Oxford Road. The exhibition features donations from over 50 international artists as well as from members of the Reading art community. This includes work by Zhanna Kadyrova, Lesja Khomenko, Natalia Lisova, Nikita Kadan, Pavlo Makov, Ukrainian artists who are displaced or currently sheltering from the war zone, as well work by UK based artists including Kaye Donachie, Meryl Donaghue, John Russell, art students, graduates, and staff from the University of Reading.

All funds raised from the art sale will go to support ‘Kuhknia’ (Kitchen) a private network of volunteers who are cooking meals in makeshift kitchens, sourcing medicine and other vital supplies and arranging temporary accommodation in people’s homes or in buildings such as old book factories for refugees stranded in Western Ukraine, in the cities of Lviv, on the Polish border, and Uzhgorod, on the Slovakian border.

Co-organisers, Susanne Clausen, Pavlo Kerestey, Uriel Kerestey, Stéphanie Mitchell and Ollie Musson are all Reading-based, and are working together in a personal capacity to raise funds to support the efforts in Ukraine.

In addition to the art sale, the event will include music, statements from those affected, and words of solidarity from community leaders.

Event refreshments will be generously provided by Double Barrelled Brewery.

Music kindly provided by Tracks and Grooves.

You can purchase tickets to the event here.

Venue: 571 Oxford Road Gallery (Open Hand Open Space), Brock Keep, 571 Oxford Road, Reading, RG30 1HW

Date: Thursday, 24 March 2022
Time: 18:30 - 22:00