BOXFORD – Students in Masconomet Regional High School’s Advanced Placement art studio program are taking part in a special project this month to show support for children in Ukraine.
As part of the Memory Project, a nonprofit that collects portraits of children from around the world, AP art studio students will draw 24 portraits of Ukrainian children using photographs provided by the children’s mothers.
The Memory Project was started by Ben Schumaker, a former University of Wisconsin student who worked in a Guatemalan orphanage and wanted to provide children he met with a tangible, positive memory of their childhood.
“This is a way to both connect our students to families in Ukraine who are experiencing extraordinary hardship and provide those families with a nicely drawn portrait that depicts their children in a time before their lives were upended by war,” art instructor Elizabeth Saitta said.
Once the portraits are completed, they will be delivered to the Ukrainian families for them to keep. Students are scheduled to finish the project on Sept. 30.
In past years, AP art studio students have completed portraits for children in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Romania, Guatemala, Honduras, Thailand, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Peru.
