Discover the rich artistic traditions of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia in this engaging six-part webinar series for K–14 educators, launching during the 2025–2026 academic year!
This six-part webinar series is designed to help educators integrate the arts into their classrooms, with a focus on the diverse art forms of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Each 90-minute session will explore a different art form, including music, dance, literature, visual arts, cultural artifacts, and theater/film. Participants will learn about different art forms and practical strategies for incorporating them into their teaching, drawing on expert insights and resources from leading institutions.
While the webinars are part of a cohesive series, educators are welcome to attend any or all of the sessions. Educators who participate in the entire series will be awarded 10 PDP (contact) hours. This series offers a unique opportunity to enrich your curriculum with creative and engaging resources from the Eastern European and Eurasian cultural tradition.
Click below to explore webinar topics, each with its own registration link, allowing you to sign up for any (or all) that interest you.
For additional details about the webinar series, please see The Arts of Eastern Europe and Eurasia: A Webinar Series for Educators.
This series, which is supported by a Title VI/National Resource Center Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is a collaboration between the following:
- Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
- Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, University of Pittsburgh
- Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas
- Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, The Ohio State University
- Center for Slavic, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University
- Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Webinar 1 (October): Interdisciplinary Strategies for Teaching Traditional Cultural Heritage
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 5:30 –7 pm CT
Register here!
We are excited to kick off the series with a session focused on Interdisciplinary Strategies of Teaching Traditional Cultural Heritage. This webinar will concentrate on UNESCO-recommended methodological strategies of including topics on traditional cultural heritage of Eastern Europe and Eurasia into the curricula, for courses spanning from language, arts, and geography, to mathematics and physics. Educators will come away with resources and strategies for integrating these themes into a variety of classroom settings.
Webinar 2 (November): Russian Ballet
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 5:30 -7 pm CT
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During this session, we will learn about the Russian ballet as a powerful cultural force shaped by political, religious, and aesthetic pressures from the 19th to the 20th century. We will examine how ballet was viewed by critics, dancers, and administrators—as both an “impossible” art form and a near-religious practice of survival and expression. Educators will gain tools to connect performing arts with broader historical and cultural themes, enriching classroom discussions around artistic expression under authoritarian regimes, the role of tradition in modernity, and how art can serve both resistance and conformity.
Webinar 3 (December): Bringing the Sounds of Eastern Europe and Eurasia into the Classroom
Thursday, December 4, 2025, 5:30 –7 pm CT
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This session will focus on practical strategies for incorporating music from Eastern Europe and Eurasia into K-12 teaching. Participants will explore traditional and popular musical forms and genres from across the region, with attention to how sound can illuminate broader cultural, historical, and social themes. The webinar will highlight listening examples, classroom activities, and cross-curricular approaches that connect these musics to subjects including literatures, geography, and history. Educators will leave with ready-to-use resources and ideas for engaging students through the diverse musical traditions of the region.
Webinar 4 (January): Ukrainian Pysanky - A Journey Through History and Symbolism into Today's Classroom
Thursday, January 8, 2026, 5:30 –7 pm CT
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This session focuses on the ancient tradition of pysanky (decorated eggs) in Ukraine. It discusses the history and process of making pysanky as well as the fascinating symbolism in the designs, tracing the change pysanky symbolism throughout cultural shifts in Ukraine. The session also introduces participants to digital resources on pysanky including sample lesson plans that show educators how they can use pysanky in a variety of classroom contexts.
Webinar 5 (February): Power, Protest, and Daringness: Snapshots from a Century of Russian and East European Theater
Tuesday, February 3, 2026, 5:30 –7 pm CT
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Theater has played an influential and important role in Russia and Eastern Europe, where theatergoing is often an ordinary, affordable, and highly valued activity. Theater in this region, whether at independent theaters or at state-funded national theaters, has maintained a resilient artistic and political voice throughout the political turmoil of WWI and the destruction of European empires, through the censorship and repressions of the Communist period, through a globalized Europe and Russia’s brutal war with a NATO- and EU-ally today. In this presentation, I’ll zero in on several particular theatrical productions that give special insight into the intersection of the artistic and the political over the past century in this region. The selected productions will all be ones that are exciting, accessible, and teachable through readily available translated plays, photographs, videos, and/or scholarly commentary.
Webinar 6 (March): From Lullabies to Naive Art: Culture, Memory, and Resilience
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 5:30 –7 pm CT
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How does art preserve memory, sustain cultural heritage, and shape national identity—especially during times of conflict?
This sixth and final webinar in The Arts of Eastern Europe and Eurasia: A Webinar Series for Educators explores how artistic expression functions as a living record of cultural memory. Through case studies from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States, we will examine how art and culture are mobilized as tools of influence, identity, and messaging, particularly in moments of war, political upheaval, and societal change.
Designed for educators, this session offers practical insights and classroom-ready materials that illuminate the power of memory, creativity, and cultural heritage in shaping both historical and contemporary narratives. Participants will also develop strategies to help students think critically, recognize disinformation, and better understand the intersections of art, identity, and politics.