| Type | Non-profit corporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Location | Madison, WI - U.S. |
| Area served | Global |
| Focus | Orphaned, abandoned and disadvantaged children. |
| Method | Arts-based self-esteem building |
| Website | www.thememoryproject.org |
The Memory Project is a service-learning project in which advanced high school artists create original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. To do this, the artists receive pictures of children who are waiting for portraits, and then work in their classrooms to create the portraits. Once finished, the portraits are delivered to the children, and the children are then invited to create drawings or write letters to send back to the artists.
One purpose of the project is to provide children in orphanages with special keepsakes that honor their sense of self-identity and build their self-esteem. An additional purpose of the project is to raise awareness of the needs and rights of children in orphanages around the world.
During the first school year of the project, 2004-05, approximately 500 portraits were produced for children in Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, and Nepal by artists representing various high schools throughout the United States. The next school year, 2005-06, the project continued to spread, and nearly 3,000 portraits were produced for children in numerous countries. On September 5, 2006, the Memory Project was featured at the end of Katie Couric's debut on the CBS Evening News. That publicity fueled the project's growth, leading to an annual participation level of 5,000 artists from high schools throughout the United States.