Portrait Project Update

You may recall from earlier newsletters and social media posts that we are currently on the journey to produce three portraits to celebrate the Kildare Education Ministries ‘Year of Justice’.  In 2020 we have commissioned a project titled the Living Justice Portrait Project.

Given that the project is in its final stages we thought that it would be timely to share some updates regarding the project with you.

In May of this year we advertised for artists to submit proposals to create three portraits of our College patrons: St Brigid, Daniel Delany and Nano Nagle, who all embody the story of living justly.

Past student Alisha Ryan was selected from a very competitive pool of candidates.  Alisha’s proposal reflected an existing understanding of what it meant to be part of a school in the Brigidine Tradition and she was able to espouse an affiliation with the values of the College  and how she would be able to bring these values to life in her portraiture.

Alisha’s proposal also identified ways that she wanted to interweave stories and symbols from our local Indigenous culture.  Our project team then identified that we needed to seek the approval of the local Aboriginal community for Alisha to paint cultural representations as a nonindigenous person.  Local Yorta Yorta man Troy Firebrace, who is also an employee of Catholic Education Sandhurst,  has been working with Alisha and the team to oversee cultural sensitivities.

The project has developed in more ways than just the culmination of three amazing pieces of artwork. We have watched an inspirational artist to artist relationship develop over recent months.  Alisha and Troy are collaborating, consulting and sharing stories as these artworks develop and transform into what will be treasured artworks for generations to come.

We have been documenting the journey of the artworks and will have a five-minute documentary that will share the story of the project with our school community. (Because we are really tech savvy nowadays the doco will be accessible through QR codes – making it more accessible and appealing to our students).

The artworks will be unveiled in January of 2021 at our Opening School Mass.

The Living Justice Portrait Project will be a wonderful way for St. Joseph’s College to share the charism of Brigid, Daniel and Nano and how they inform our principles for a more just world.

Here is a sneak peak of the work as it is unfolding before our eyes.

If you would like to know more about the Principles of Living Justice please visit here:  https://www.kildareministries.org.au/justice.html

Kirrilee Westblade

Living Justice Portrait Project