HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BRING LESSONS OF HOLODOMOR, ORWELL, TO LIFE THROUGH ART
From May 31 to June 4 a unique, “Orwellian” human rights art exhibit was featured in downtown Toronto’s Metro Hall. The display showcased art in honor of the Holodomor and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine today, made by students from five different high school classes throughout Toronto.
The exhibit is the product of a program titled Orwell Art, a unit of study developed by Toronto high school teacher and community leader Nadia Guerrera to teach about the fragility of democracy and the role of civic engagement in safeguarding it around the world. Orwell Art aims to raise awareness of the Holodomor, the 1932-1933 man-made famine genocide in Ukraine, by bringing the headlines of the current crisis in Ukraine into classrooms. Students learn about the historical context of Holodomor and ongoing crisis today by reading the book Orwell and The Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm by Andrea Chalupa.
“This semester we wanted students to become empowered to actively participate in shaping their communities and the world we live in,” said Guerrera. “Democracy requires informed, purposeful, and active citizenship, and to foster this students need an education that empowers them to live up to the responsibilities of citizenship.”
The importance of active global citizenship was highlighted throughout the evening. Using the current crisis in Ukraine as a case study, students “worked on developing the skill of analyzing both historical and current events with the view to improve society,” continued Guerra, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Orwell Art. “Learning about the events and atrocities of the past is absolutely necessary for understanding the current crisis in Ukraine,” she emphasized.
The Orwell Art program is also unique in that it connects classrooms in Toronto with those in Kyiv through its partner, Transnational Education Group. This platform allows for Canadian and Ukrainian students to be brought together over Skype to discuss global affairs in the context of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 20th century history.
Animal Farm is a critique of the Soviet Union dictatorship, and an expose of Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror, brutality, and crimes against humanity. “Orwell fought years of censorship and rejection to get Animal Farm out into the world,” explained Chalupa, a special guest at the opening reception. “[It was] a book that no one wanted at the time, politically unsafe, because Stalin was a great World War II hero. But Orwell kept fighting because human lives were at stake,” she said.
Reflecting on her own life and career to this point, Chalupa shared some words of wisdom with the young scholars, drawing parallels between their potential future paths in life and those of Orwell’s. While Stalin, ‘Uncle Joe,’ was killing millions of Ukrainians, “Orwell stayed human, he fought to make their voice heard in the world,” Chalupa emphasized. “It comes down to staying human and listening to that human voice inside of you that knows [to] have faith in yourself and the dark night will pass and you’ll get your voice out there in the world and be heard.”
These words emphasize one of the underlying purposes behind Orwell Art, which is to have students learn stewardship and democratic engagement by studying how Orwell overcame rejection and censorship to publish Animal Farm. Through art, students address fundamental human rights issues of the past and present in an effort to demonstrate the fragility of democracy and the ease with which dictatorships can take over.
Through Orwell Art, students are encouraged to examine the greater context of history behind today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, and understand how the current war in eastern Ukraine is taking place on the same territory where millions of Ukrainians - including community leaders, the intelligentsia, and artists - were deliberately starved to death and subsequently replaced by imported ethnic Russians. Through their art they draw the link between past and present, bringing Orwell’s lessons to life as they apply to twenty-first century realities in Ukraine.
The opening reception was also attended by special guest Mykola Latyshko, a Holodomor survivor. “When I looked at all these pictures and exhibits I couldn’t help but feel like praising students for their talents, for their understanding of the subject which they are presenting in an art form,” he said.
Speaking to the students and attendees, Latyshko described what it was like living under communist rule in the Soviet Union. “When the Communist regime came to power, they proclaimed so called ‘state ownership,’ [meaning] everything belong[ed] to the state,” he said, explaining that given that most people in Ukraine at that time were ordinary farmers working on their own land, initially there was much disbelief and confusion on how such a system could be implemented.
But implemented it was, cruelly and without any regard for human life. “Your house, your horses, your implements, including yourself – belonged to the state. And the state [had] the right, because they [made] the laws, to make you do whatever they [felt was] right,” recounted Latyshko.
“Most people cannot understand what dictatorship means if they are brought up in a democracy, where the government is responsible to you for their promises, and not vice versa,” he said.
It is that kind of understanding that Orwell Art aims to foster within students, simultaneously challenging them to become active global stewards and participants in the democratic process.
This year’s participating schools were St. Basil-the-Great College School, Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School, and Michael Power/St. Joseph High School. For more information please see orwellart.org.
From May 31 to June 4 a unique, “Orwellian” human rights art exhibit was featured in downtown Toronto’s Metro Hall. The display showcased art in honor of the Holodomor and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine today, made by students from five different high school classes throughout Toronto. 
The importance of active global citizenship was highlighted throughout the evening. Using the current crisis in Ukraine as a case study, students “worked on developing the skill of analyzing both historical and current events with the view to improve society,” continued Guerra, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Orwell Art. “Learning about the events and atrocities of the past is absolutely necessary for understanding the current crisis in Ukraine,” she emphasized.
Animal Farm is a critique of the Soviet Union dictatorship, and an expose of Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror, brutality, and crimes against humanity. “Orwell fought years of censorship and rejection to get Animal Farm out into the world,” explained Chalupa, a special guest at the opening reception. “[It was] a book that no one wanted at the time, politically unsafe, because Stalin was a great World War II hero. But Orwell kept fighting because human lives were at stake,” she said. 
These words emphasize one of the underlying purposes behind Orwell Art, which is to have students learn stewardship and democratic engagement by studying how Orwell overcame rejection and censorship to publish Animal Farm. Through art, students address fundamental human rights issues of the past and present in an effort to demonstrate the fragility of democracy and the ease with which dictatorships can take over. 
The opening reception was also attended by special guest Mykola Latyshko, a Holodomor survivor. “When I looked at all these pictures and exhibits I couldn’t help but feel like praising students for their talents, for their understanding of the subject which they are presenting in an art form,” he said.
“Most people cannot understand what dictatorship means if they are brought up in a democracy, where the government is responsible to you for their promises, and not vice versa,” he said. 
