Telling Our Stories: Portraits by Latinx Youth and Their Families in the DMV grew out of a concern for how others would document the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Latinx communities in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The project, focused on making portraits, has been a collaboration between the artist Muriel Hasbun, students and teachers at Escuela Key Elementary in Arlington, Virginia, and curators at the National Portrait Gallery.
The portraits presented in this online exhibition resulted from workshops led by Hasbun and Rebecca Lehr, an art teacher at Escuela Key Elementary. In each bilingual workshop, held in English and Spanish, Hasbun guided fourth and fifth graders through the basic concepts of portraiture. They discussed the roles of artist and sitter, setting, scale, lighting, and other elements of portrayal.
Together, these portraits form a social practice artwork. They demonstrate the importance of ensuring that students—and their caregivers—have the tools necessary to recount their stories. Although the impact of the pandemic is one that comes across indirectly, its trajectory is apparent when we consider how this project was carried out. Meetings were initially held virtually and eventually in-person.