Meet Maryna, our superstar from the Ukraine bringing people together through art.

Maryna is a Ukrainian artist who studied drawing and fine art as part of her degree in fashion design. Back in April 2023, Maryna joined the Creatful team as a volunteer. Fast forward to today, and in little over a year, Maryna’s impact has been truly inspiring.

It quickly became apparent to Creatful that Maryna possessed both the skillset and mindset to really make waves. It was for this reason that after only a few months of joining Creatful, Nancy Fellows – Creatful’s Founding Director, passed ownership of Creatful’s Ukrainian Art Group to Maryna. Today Maryna runs Creatful’s Ukrainian art programmes in both Havant and Petersfield.

The programme, consisting of weekly art groups – which are primarily attended by children – offer the Ukrainian community an opportunity to come together and reap the benefits that social creativity can have on wellbeing. Parents of the children are welcomed at the groups and often use the opportunity to pursue their own artistic projects. A key part of Creatful’s Ukrainian Arts Programme is about helping attendees feel relaxed and providing an opportunity to feel close to their culture. By teaching in Ukrainian and covering the history of Ukrainian art, Maryna is helping to doing exactly that.

Looking forwards, Creatful will be working with Maryna to build on the incredible success she has had in the community. Nancy Fellows sees a very bright future together “Maryna is our very own superstar. We are so proud of what she’s doing for the Ukrainian community. Working with Maryna and seeing the passion she brings to her work is inspiring and she has played a pivotal role in Creatful’s impact on communities throughout Hampshire. We cannot wait to bring Maryna to some more of our events, so watch this space!”

Creatful’s Ukrainian Art programme is supported by Havant borough council, Petersfield council and our Local Children’s Partnerships.

Note about Creatful; Creatful provide spaces for people to Connect using Creativity. We believe mindful creativity is an underutilised wellbeing tool that should be accessible to all.

​Creatful is cross generational and inclusive so we can create spaces for all people to feel welcome and safe. Creatful is a social enterprise – that means whatever money we make from our workshops goes straight back into delivering more for our community. Learn more by visiting Creatful’s website; www.creatful.co.uk