We Are Waterloo community art project wants your portrait

Your face could be on display at a museum next year.

That's the goal of a new project from the city of Waterloo's culture department, called We Are Waterloo. The workshops will be held throughout 2016 to help residents use their artistic side to paint, draw and create portraits and self portraits.

All completed portraits will go on display at the City of Waterloo Museum in Conestoga Mall next January. It will be part of an exhibit to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

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"One of the goals of the (city's) culture plan is to showcase and highlight the diversity that's really present in Waterloo," culture program specialist Sonya Poweska said in an interview with CBC News.

"Everybody is really excited about it and not just the artists, but the individuals who have been inquiring about it. I think the fact we're allowing people to express images of their own identity is, maybe not a new concept, but it is something people are really excited about."

Artists will provide 'helping hand'

The first workshop will take place this Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the John M. Harper branch of the Waterloo Public Library, located at 500 Fischer-Hallman Road North.

It will be lead by portrait artist Heather Franklin. Mirrors will be available so people can look at themselves while creating their pieces and Franklin will be there to provide basic instruction.

"She's just there to provide a helping hand as well as some guiding support for people who might be very skilled and might not be very skilled," Poweska said.

"She's a very good and well accomplished instructor, as well, which is really nice because it's not often that these kind of free workshops pop up and to gain access to someone of Heather's talent is a real opportunity."

Each workshop will be unique to the community where it is being held. Currently, Poweska said they are working to set up a workshop with the Aboriginal community in partnership with the universities. For that workshop, they'd like to find an Aboriginal artist.

"We're working with a number of cultural community groups and we'd like ... to use an artist who does specific art that reflects the culture of the community," she said.

Goal of 300 portraits

Although people taking part in the workshops may not have much artistic ability, Poweska said it is a chance to express themselves in a way they may not have before.

"Who knows? Maybe someone sees themselves in a very highly structured way or someone views themselves as an abstract. I think, really, we're just looking for how people view themselves and can articulate that in an image form at the moment," she said.

They are hoping to gather more than 300 portraits. After each workshop, the portraits will be scanned and the participants can take their pieces home with them. The scanned pieces will be the ones put on display in Jan. 2017.

Residents interested in taking part can visit the arts and culture section of the City of Waterloo's website to find out more about the project and future workshops.