The Bellport High School art department believes that art has the power to change lives and impact others. With this in mind, 23 student-artists enrolled in Drawing & Painting II and members of the National Art Honor Society partnered with The Memory Project, a nonprofit organization that invites art teachers and their students to create portraits for youth around the globe who have faced substantial life challenges.

Through collaboration with The Memory Project, the students created portraits of a group of children living in Nigeria. The portraits will serve as a piece of personal heritage and history for the Nigerian art subjects, many of whom are orphaned and living in refugee camps.

In creating the colorful portraits, the students-artists utilized a range of media including graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, marker and paint to create unique pieces of art based on a digital photo they received. The finished portraits are being delivered to the Nigerian children and the students are looking forward to receiving a video of the Nigerian children when they see their portraits for the first time.

National Art Honor Society adviser and teacher Devin Auricchio said the students truly enjoyed painting the portraits. “They found it creatively challenging but also very meaningful to create artwork that could possibly impact the life of someone they have never met,” Ms. Auricchio said.

The art department would like to congratulate the following The Memory Project participants: Taliyah Barnes, Alexia Benjamin, Evan Bland, Trinity Brown, Kerri Campbell, Eva Colon, Alex Deiters, Elisha Feliz, Seraya Freeman, Anjalece Garcia, Mathew Guerrero, Haley Herrmann, Cameron Kerr-Smith, Jillian Kerr-Smith, Miranda Laney, Sanaa Lindsay, Silvia Noguez-Lopez, Giana Porter, Madelyn Reyes, Caitlin Saliba, Maria Slavnova, Dream Smith and Tyler Walsh.

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