Elgin Academy students paint children's portraits for cause

Students in Elgin Academy's Art for a Cause club have painted 10 portraits of Haitian children to be sent to them as part of the Memory Project.

The Wisconsin-based nonprofit invites art teachers and their students to paint or sketch portraits for youths who have faced challenges, such as violence, disasters, extreme poverty, neglect and loss of parents. Organizers get photographs of children from global charities operating homes, schools, and care centers worldwide and provide them to participating schools.

Students then create look-alike portraits that are mailed back to the Memory Project to hand deliver to those children who are the subject of the artwork.

Since 2004, Memory Project has created more than 100,000 portraits for children in 43 countries with the goal of helping them feel valued.

For art students, the project offers an opportunity to creatively practice kindness and raises their awareness of global issues, said Joseph Stuart, Elgin Academy art instructor.

"I'm a big advocate that art exists beyond four walls. It's all around us," said Stuart, who heads the Art for a Cause club. "This is the first time we've done it."

While students get technical experience painting traditional portraits, they also are sending a message through their work to these children that people care about their plight, Stuart said.

"We recognize who they are as individuals and not as a statistic," Stuart said.

Stuart selected eight students for the project based on their love for art and empathy toward the cause.

"It was definitely challenging for me," said senior Xinran Liu, 18, who didn't have much experience with portraits. She chose to create an oil painting on canvas of a smiling 12-year old girl named Ducee.

"It really kind of touched me," Liu said. "I kind of got really attached to this girl that I really never met before. I'm trying to create something really joyful."

Sophomore Claire Noland, 15, used acrylic paint for her portrait of a 11-year old boy named Chery, who had a serious look on his face in the photograph.

"He was staring down the camera looking intimidating," she said. "I wanted to paint something that was a celebration of the individual. I wanted to show him in a positive viewpoint. It's kind of cool to have something painted that looks like you. It was kind of a random act of kindness that I enjoyed doing."