On the occasion of the birthday of the artist and teacher Oleksandr Osmerkin (December 8), the Art School named after O.O.Osmerkin of the city of Kropyvnytskyi traditionally presents exhibitions in the O.O.Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum as part of the art project "Gallery of Children's Art", for which there is presentation. exhibitions of children's creativity, popularization of the best works of young artists, involvement of children in fine arts and the creation of a museum collection "Children's creativity".
    This annual exhibition with the symbolic name "DESPITE EVERYTHING" is special, as it presents student works created specifically in the O.O.Osmerkin Memorial Art Museum, in the exhibition halls of which school classes will be 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 on February 24, 2022, has become a real art shelter for young artists and their mentors, who during the air raid are able to continue to master the knowledge of fine arts in the basement of the museum, a designated place of shelter.
    The war radically embodied the life of each of us, no sphere remained unchanged and will never be the same again. The war gives new meaning to everything, society reacts to the painful challenges of today and is transformed into new forms of interaction. And the most vivid expression of the transformations that are taking place is art, because war is always destruction, and art is creation, which means life, rebirth from the ashes. Artistic processes in Ukraine did not stop during the war, their vectors and advantages changed. After all, art is stronger than any form of social consciousness and any kind of social practice. Art unites the Ukrainian people in a crucial period of the country's history, which is fighting for its independence and territorial integrity.
    Nowadays, every Ukrainian maintains his own front - and not only military, volunteer, humanitarian or informational, but also an artistic front. Here is the Art School, named after painting professor Oleksandr Osmerkin in 1992 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, holding the artistic front. Experienced teachers, preserving the foundations of an academic school and introducing the latest forms of education, professionally impart their knowledge of drawing, painting, sculpture, decorative arts and the history of world art to children. The students of the school are active participants and graduates of city, regional, all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions-competitions, winners of the Art Competition "Youth palette", which bears the name of the famous artist and teacher - honored cultural worker of Ukraine, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, laureate of the regional award in the field of fine arts and art history named after Oleksandr Osmerkin in the nomination "national tradition" Leonid Ivanovich Bondar (1938 - 2013) , who for more than twenty years headed the art school with a long history, because it was created in 1959. Among the graduates of the school are well-known figures - members of the National Union of Artists, Architects and Masters of Folk Art of Ukraine, laureates of regional prizes in the field of fine arts and art history named after  Oleksandr Osmerkin and in the field of architecture, heraldry and vexillology, and decorative and applied arts named after Yakiv Pauchenko
    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 Zantariia, Yulia Zakharina, Liubov Kyrianova, 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 Zantariia, 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.