The Portrait Project

History

While enrolled as a student in the UF Center for Arts in Medicine graduate program in 2020, Cameron was a volunteer with the UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine Program. She facilitated art activities and made drawings for patients, as they often requested personalized art. She was inspired by how creating art with patients brought joy and brightness to their day. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all in-person volunteering, Cameron still wanted to keep using art to spread joy and uplift people. She reached out to her classmate, Grace, and her mentors from her Center for Arts in Medicine courses, Ferol Carytsas and Molly Kempson. With their help and guidance, Grace and Cameron spent the summer before their senior year creating the proposal for The Portrait Project. After months of developing their organization’s goals and methodology, they reached out to local charities to create art for them.

In their first year, they created personalized portraits for the folks at Grace Grows, Gators for Refugee Medical Relief, Girl's Place, and the Alzheimer's Association. The personalized portraits depicted individuals how they wanted to be seen and represented their true identities. The portraits promoted self-esteem, self-efficacy, and community building. Cameron and Grace believe that art has the power to uplift and unite people. In 2021, they both graduated from UF, and they grew The Portrait Project into a nonprofit organization and recruited a wonderful team of directors: Caitlin Chiampou, Jenn Ly, Rebecca Kam, and Karen Jeong. They have also expanded the scope of their organization to include more long term community-based projects. 

Current and Future Projects

Currently, The Portrait Project is working on a couple of major projects in the Gainesville community. They are creating a large-scale mural for Grace Marketplace, a one-stop homeless resource center in Gainesville. After months of creating a design and gathering supplies, the mural was completed in late spring 2023. They are also selling art, including live portrait drawings, at local art markets to raise money for local causes. They  participated in Bazaar À La Carte, a night festival hosted by Gainesville’s How Bazaar, and they donated proceeds to Grace Clinic, a free clinic that provides primary care and women’s health services for unhoused individuals.

Outside of these community projects in Gainesville, The Portrait Project is also collaborating on research with its Creative & Marketing Director, Jenn Ly, who is an alumnae of UF’s Masters in Arts in Medicine program. Jenn’s project uses reflective self-portrait making in an urban refugee community in Seattle, Washington as an intervention that has been proven to provide an avenue to communicate non-verbally and translate personal experiences into explicit forms in other populations. As a result, participant’s familiarity with the community and sense of self increased. These findings support The Portrait Project’s evidence-based mission and as a direction for future self-portrait studies. 

As The Portrait Project team continues into the future, they look forward to the fundraisers, large-scale community art projects, and research pursuits. Cameron and Grace express their gratitude to their Center for Arts in Medicine mentors, with a special thanks to Ferol Carytsas and Molly Kempson, and their nonprofit team! Cameron and Grace have truly enjoyed their journey and look back on how far they came with gratitude. The Portrait Project has enriched their understanding of community health and wellbeing. For both of them, using art to create positive change locally is what motivates them to continue their work. Follow The Portrait Project on instagram to see where they pop up next!