Winter 2018
IHA Partners with the Memory Project Art Students Practice Global Awareness and Selflessness through Art
D
uring the 2016-17 school year, students and teachers in IHA’s Art Department continued their work with the extraordinary organization, the Memory Project. This charitable nonprofit invites art teachers and their students to create and donate portraits to youth around the world who have faced substantial challenges—from neglect, abuse, and loss of family to violence, war, and extreme poverty. Since joining the program in 2013, Immaculate Heart Academy artists have completed portraits for students in Cambodia, Haiti, Thailand, Paraguay, Madagascar, and Peru. Since its inception in 2004, the Memory Project has created more than one hundred thousand portraits for children in forty-three countries. “The intention of these portraits is to help the children feel valued and important and to give our art students an opportunity to practice kindness, selflessness, and global awareness through art,” explained Mrs. Lisa Encke, IHA director of the arts. “Our first semester Advanced Painting and Drawing students created paintings for children in the Ukraine. Second semester students created portraits for those in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Every year, the Memory Project receives photos of children and teens from global charities operating residential homes, schools, and care centers in countries around the world. Team members provide participating art teachers with full-page color prints and digital copies of the photos; teachers then work with their students to create the portraits. Representatives from the Memory Project have the wonderful experience of
hand-delivering them to the kids. The intent is to have several portraits for each child created by various art students and based on different poses. A video of each delivery is also made and shared with all of the art students and teachers involved.
the children in both countries. This past semester, our student artists created portraits of Syrian refugees. They look forward to participating in the Memory Project for years to come.
In a letter from the Memory Project, Mrs. Encke was informed that the children in the Ukraine were extremely “excited to receive the artwork” and “very touched” by our efforts to create such special gifts for them. The children and teens in the Democratic Republic of Congo were exceptionally happy to receive the unique and special gifts, and were “so surprised to see themselves portrayed as works of art!” Additionally, because of IHA’s financial contributions, team members of the Memory Project were able to donate a total of $9,000 to support art, therapy, and youth development programs for
Carly DePhillips’18
Back row, left to right, are Katherine Evans’17, Brielle Rapsas’18, Emily DeSernia’18, Abigail Heffernan’18, Haley Gallagher’18, and Amanda Natt’18. Front row, left to right, are Olivia Wicki’18, Riley DeRosa’18, Michaela Cavanagh’18, and Kaguya Okawa-O’Connell’18.
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