Memory Project provides TJ High School students with unforgettable art project

Art students at Thomas Jefferson High School recently completed a project they will probably never forget.

The Memory Project has art students render portraits of often forgotten orphans from struggling countries. After Laura Hanel, the school’s visual arts instructor, contacted the Memory Project, the class received images of 20 Bolivian children. The students then drew portraits of the 20 children. Cynthia Miró, another art teacher at the school, has also joined in and her class has almost completed portraits of 40 other children.

“I witnessed my students grow fond of how their art could impact the life of another human being,” Hanel said.

Hanel will now send the artwork back to the Memory Project, which will hand deliver the portraits to the orphans. As they are delivered, a video and photo will be taken of the children receiving the portraits, and the video and photo will then be mailed back to the students.

“This will be and has been a wonderful opportunity for my students to take part in something bigger than themselves in order to see how their art can impact the world,” Hanel said.