We Are Waterloo
Portrait Project
The We Are Waterloo Portrait Project began in 2016 as a year-long community art initiative to capture the connections between art, culture, community, and identity. During more than twenty artist-led public workshops and activities, community members challenged themselves to create the self-portraits that comprise this collaborative community artwork – a portrait of Waterloo.
Pieces were scanned as part of the project with originals going back to their creator and with the City of Waterloo retaining rights to reproduce the work as a print for display purposes.
The more than 500 unique and inspiring self-portraits by individuals who work, play and live in Waterloo not only celebrate the diversity of our community, but illustrate how Waterloo embodies what it means to be Canadian. By timing the project in conjunction with Canada’s sesquicentennial, the exhibition offers an opportunity for the community to celebrate its present as well as its past and future.
The workshop and portrait collection phase of the program ran from January – December 2016, with exhibition of the work taking place in 2017.
Public workshops and activities were held throughout 2016, each lead by different local artists. Some workshops were organized in partnership with or independently by community groups.*
*I lead a workshop October 2016 at the Settlement Co. in Uptown Waterloo
