The Bromfield School’s National Art Honor Society, in only its second full year, is a rapidly-growing, flourishing community of student artists, thanks to a series of projects such as the Memory Project, aimed at connecting people through art.

The NAHS began at Bromfield last year with 12 members. This year, the society had 17 members. As of last week’s induction ceremony, the NAHS now has grown to over thirty members. To join, members must maintain a 2.3 grade-point average, a B-plus in art classes, and complete 10 art-related community service hours over the course of the academic year.

The society’s president, junior Danielle Shea, takes an active role in making sure all the members can come to meetings and informing everyone of upcoming projects and events. “I feel like my most important role is making sure everyone has the ability to participate if they have the desire,” she says.

Junior Laura Zupancic, the society’s vice president, performs similar tasks, scheduling projects for the NAHS to take on and getting the word out to members. “While I am vice president, I feel as though we [Treasurer Aly Marteney, Secretary Erica Marksteiner, Shea, and Zupancic] don’t let our titles define our jobs,” Zupancic says. “I like to think we work together to organize new ideas and events, rather than taking orders.”

This year, the NAHS participated in the Memory Project, an initiative to reach out to impoverished and orphaned children around the world. The project was begun by the nonprofit organization My Class Cares, founded in 2004 by Ben Schumaker, of Madison, Wisc. The idea is simple: “A picture of a child is sent to the artist, who paints a portrait of the child, and sends it back,” explains Shea. The children “do not have many keepsakes … the idea is to create a memory of their childhood that will be able to stay with them forever.” This year the children whose portraits NAHS members painted were from an orphanage in Thailand.

“It was very powerful to know that someone out in the world really appreciated our art,” Zupancic says. “We were making such a personal gift for them. We students are so different from those small children, but through this one step we’ve created a bond that I hope they carry for the rest of their life.”

Says Shea, “As an artist it was terrifying and exhilarating. The last thing in the world we would want is for our kid… to open [their portrait] and say, ‘who is this?’. We knew it was important to them and that made it immensely important to us.”

Schumaker delivered the portraits in person, along with pictures of the artists, to make the process “a little more personal,” Zupancic says. “Ben wrote back to us after the paintings were sent to the children, and he said they were very pleased with them, which made the whole project even more meaningful.”

In addition, Schumaker sent the Memory Project participants pictures of the children holding their portraits. “You can see from their smiles how proud they feel to be an artist’s muse,” Zupancic describes.

In addition to the Memory Project, the NAHS works throughout the year on several art projects within the Harvard community. For instance, the society has gone to Hildreth Elementary School to touch up murals and to help students decorate pumpkins in the fall, created valentines for Harvard’s For Art’s Sake program, painted globe ornaments for the environmental group Project 350, and more. The society continually brainstorms for more project ideas so that, Shea says, members don’t have to “go hang pictures on the wall” to complete their 10 hours of community service.

Shea credits her fellow officers with making the NAHS thrive so much in its second year and keeping it strong as it heads into a third year. “[Zupancic, Marksteiner, and Marteney] have all been great to work with and have made this year incredibly successful, which I think is shown in the almost 100 percent increase in membership.” Since all four society officers are juniors, they will remain in their positions next year, alongside teacher supervisor Julie Cook.