TA News

Students in Karyn Neubauer’s fall Painting class recently learned that their artwork for the Memory Project, a nonprofit that aims to “create a kinder world through art,” was received by Armenian students. The organization’s founder, Ben Schumaker, included a video of the deliveries with a message.

“Most of the children are living in very rural areas, so the experience of receiving such personal gifts from youth on the other side of the world was wonderfully new and exciting for them,” he said. “They felt honored, proud, and grateful for what you created, and they were amazed that people they didn’t know would spend so much time portraying them as works of art. As you will see, they danced, sang, and opened their hearts to you in return.”

The Memory Project began with Schumaker’s passion for connecting youth around the world through art “to help build cultural understanding and international kindness.” His initial aim for the project was to provide handmade, heartfelt portraits as special memories to children in orphanages. Today, the organization’s mission has expanded to youth around the world who are facing many types of challenges and with a goal to “reach a distant destination: a kinder world in which all students see themselves in one another – regardless of differences in appearance, culture, religion, or circumstance.”

TA has been participating in the Memory Project since 2008, says Visual Arts teacher Karyn Neubauer. “Students connect with their subjects as real people. They get a sense of how art can connect people without needing a common language, because art is the language.” Before mailing the portraits to their subjects, students write their name, age, and a brief note to their recipient. They trace their own hand as a symbolic way for the recipient to connect with the student artist – some of whom are right here at Thetford Academy.