The Memory Project

Students in the Art Club at Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville choose a service project to help benefit a group or parish. This year they chose to work with The Memory Project.

According to its website, “The Memory Project is an initiative in which art students create portraits for children and teens around the world who have been neglected, orphaned or disadvantaged. Given that kids in such situations tend to have few personal keepsakes, we're aiming to provide them with special memories that capture a piece of their childhood. As much as possible, we also want to help the kids see themselves as works of art.”

The organization was begun in 2004, and to date there have been approximately 50,000 portraits created for children in 34 countries.

To complete the project 14 Memorial students volunteered a total of 75 hours to create 15 original pieces of artwork from photographs of children from Guyana provided by the organization.

The portraits were completed in paint, pencil and colored pencil, and then sent to the children as gifts. When delivered, the students were photographed with their artwork, and the Art Club received copies of these photographs.