By Carter Meagher

Sutherland directs the placement of a self-portrait of an artist on the wall next to her creation.

April 12, 2023

“No, over to the left!” Upper School art teacher Pam Sutherland shouted as she directed the placement of one of many portraits high on the walls of the Octagon in Sharp Academic Commons. In her eyes, everything had to be perfect before Art Week, the week of April 17-21. 

This exhibit, by Sutherland’s Drawing 2 and Painting 2 classes, featured both self-portraits by the students and portraits of children from underserved countries. These portraits of children are part of the Memory Project, which the Collegiate art program has partnered with for five years.

Sutherland learned of the program from Heather Bruneau, a Lower School art teacher. Founded by Ben Schumaker in Wisconsin, this project finds photos of these children and sends them to art students across the world. These classes paint or draw portraits based on these photos. 

For each photo of the child, the Collegiate student received the name, age, favorite color, what they want to be when they grow up, and three words that describe them. “I think a lot of the kids work with that as inspiration,” Sutherland said. The different inspirations are obvious in the changes in background and decorations from portrait to portrait.

Sutherland lays out a portrait of a child in Cameroon that she painted herself.

For the exhibit, Sutherland printed the portraits of the children digitally so they could be seen on the high walls of the Octagon. Next to each portrait, she placed the self-portrait of the artist who painted each child. 

“I’m going to ask people to kind of think, ‘Oh, I wonder who that is.’” Sutherland shared. “I think a lot of the kids are pretty recognizable,” she said of the self-portraits. 

The different styles of each student in the class are clear by the changes between the portraits. “I want everyone to be themselves,” Sutherland said. “So each person’s style will be different.” 

Even after Art Week, the exhibit wasn’t over. Through the Memory Project, Sutherland sent the portraits back to the children that inspired them. “This is a great way to do service learning within art while still practicing their skills. This whole class is based around drawing and painting faces and figures realistically,” said Sutherland.

This exhibit was just one of many throughout Collegiate as the school transformed into a gallery for Art Week.

All photos by Carter Meagher.