MOSCOW, March 1 (Itar-Tass) — An exhibition of works made by seriously ill children, the fosterlings of the “Give Life” charitable foundation will open in the halls of the Tretyakov Picture Gallery on Krymsky Val on Thursday. The foundation’s co-founders are well-known Russian actresses Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun.
Employees of the “Give Life” foundation give art classes to ill children. They consider them to be as important as provision of vitally essential medicine, the raising of funds for operations and transplants. Over the years the foundation has accumulated vast experience which proves that creative work is a vital element in the treatment of every sick child in hospital when a small child stops being a patient chained to a dropping bottle and a target of compassion and charity and becomes an author who speaks to the world from the first person.
This is the ninth exhibition of children’s works held at the Tretyakov picture gallery. The authors are children suffering from cancer and hematological diseases. They undergo treatment the seven leading clinics in Moscow: the Russian children’s clinical hospital, the Scientific Research Institute of Radiology, the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery, the Morozov city children’s hospital and other medical institutions.
More than 200 works have been selected for the exhibition titled “pro-Svet”. They include paintings, drawings and mosaic. Light-riddled stained glass panels are the exposition’s highlights.
Actress Chulpan Khamatova said that the exhibition was dedicated to the memory of Galina Chalikova, the first director of the “Give Life” foundation who died in September last year. March 1 was Galina’s birthday. She would have been 54 if she were alive.
Actress Dina Korzun and and Irina Lebedeva, the general director of the Tretyakov picture gallery, will open the exhibition. Benefactors, the foundation’s friends and the children, whose works are on display, will be present at the ceremony.