This year, my Advanced Art class is participating in the Memory Project, an organization that matches art students in the U.S. with children in orphanages around the world. The premise is that my art students will draw portraits of children from an orphanage in Cambodia, which are mailed to the orphanage. A representative from the Memory Project videotapes the children receiving their portraits and photographs each child holding his or her portrait. This footage is emailed back to me so I can show my art students! We participated in the project last year when my students drew children from Rwanda and it was so meaningful. This year, my students are drawing children from Cambodia. In addition to the drawing project, which is gridded (to help with accuracy) and then shaded/colored using colored pencils, my students are researching different aspects of Cambodia and will share what they learn in interactive presentations.
I love this organization and project. It connects my students to children outside of their community and creates a meaningful, memorable art project that I hope they will recall for years to come. We are only about a week into the projects and already my students are calling the child in their portraits by his or her first name and I bet some are wondering about his/her life in Cambodia. They are also taking the project very seriously since they know it will be a cherished gift for a child.
Photos to come!
