If you go
› What: Opening reception for “Seeds of Hope” art exhibition and “The Babushkas of Chernobyl” documentary screening; art exhibition continues through April 28.› When: Reception at 5-7 p.m. Friday; the documentary will be shown in its entirety at 4 p.m. and run during the reception.› Where: Gallery 5 at Mountain Arts Community Center, 809 Kentucky Ave., Signal Mountain.› Admission: Free; donations appreciated to offset cost of the film.› Phone: 423-886-1959.› Websites: www.signalmacc.org, http://chernobylchildrensprogramofgreaterchattanooga.wordpress.com.
Almost 31 years since the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, an art exhibition and documentary screening Friday on Signal Mountain will showcase flickers of life from the disaster zone.
The exhibition, titled "Seeds of Hope," will offer art created by youth ages 9-17 from the Republican College of Art in Minsk, Belarus. The works will be on display starting Friday through April 28 at Gallery 5 at the Mountain Arts Community Center.
Center director Barb Storm says all of the works reflect the young artists' Eastern European ethnicity in media that include watercolor, tempera, oil, batik, pen-and-ink and pastels. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale will be used for "caring for and enriching the lives of these children."
The show is made possible through the Chernobyl Children's Program of Greater Chattanooga, which formed in 1992, six years after the April 26, 1986, disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what is now Ukraine.
"A lot of the radioactive fallout went right over the whole country of Belarus [bordering Ukraine to the north] and did a lot of damage to life and livestock," says Storm. "They're still facing the domino effects of that awful, awful incident."
Originally, the CCP was one of several agencies that sponsored summer visits with host families in the U.S. for Belarusian orphans and other children impacted by the catastrophe, considered one of the worst nuclear accidents in history in terms of cost and casualties. The Belarusian government ended the visits after an adult leader's defection in California, says CCP director Eve Solteau.
But she has maintained a humanitarian relationship with the country, coordinating visits by Chattanoogans to her organization's summer camps and Christmas events. And every time she visits, she returns with artwork to sell on the students' behalf.
"I bring back art in my suitcase every trip," she says. "Maybe 20 or 30 pieces every trip."
Solteau says there are about 20 pieces in this show, all framed.
"When I started getting the art in 1995, [the paintings were] on wallpaper, cardboard, pieces of wood, just some bizarre things," she recalls. "They didn't have money for supplies."
Storm hosted a sale in her home before Christmas and decided that a larger exhibition would help raise awareness of the local nonprofit.
"Even though the radioactive fallout was long ago they are certainly still children of poverty," she says of the artists. "Through the sale of their paintings, they are able to raise funds for their care, their education and to help the school also."
As part of Friday's opening, the gallery also has arranged screenings of the award-winning documentary "The Babushkas of Chernobyl," which details the lives of a handful of residents who returned to the "exclusion zone" around the nuclear plant and have lived there, semi-officially, for years.
Solteau says this is the first time the film has had a public screening outside the festival circuit. It will be shown at 4 p.m. for early arrivals and run on a loop during the reception.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.