Profiles and Portraits – A Hybrid CIRCLE
See how middle school aged girls participating in this program are encouraged and mentored, projecting a positive self-image into visual art.
- contact: Robyn Loos - Weitz CEC
- email: rloos@unomaha.edu
Circles, a program developed by Nebraskan’s for Civic Reform (NCR), introduces middle school aged girls to highly successful women in the Omaha area who have been successful working in careers non-traditional to women. By working side-by-side with these successful women, the girls are exposed to real world experience and work with personal goal setting, while breaking down gender inequity in career opportunities and expectations.
The program allows the girls to project a positive self-image, which is translated into visual art. The art is on display for a short period in the Weitz CEC. Visit the Union Pacific Atrium on the first floor.
Funded by the Omaha Women’s’ Fund, Profiles and Portraits met in the Lewis and Clark Middle School Community Learning Center after school program. Liz Hunt, founder, and CEO of DayCloud Designs began the club by talking with the girls about the image that they project to the world. Through her talent for graphic design, she demonstrated how media works to create and frame an image for people. While doing so, she also was a personal, real-world example of a woman entrepreneur owning and operating her own company in the community where the girls live. She was the living, breathing example of her message.
Liz then handed off the group to professional artist, Kristin Pluhacek. Funded by a grant from the Nebraska Arts Council, Kristin took up the task of teaching the girls how to translate Liz’s message into art. The girls went through a process that started with photo images of themselves, incorporated outside imagery into a representative collage, then Kristin taught them the principles of visual art. The Profiles and Portraits clubs then made several trips to Kristin’s professional studio where they created their own self-portraits.
As with Liz, Kristin was a model of a highly successful, self-employed woman successfully working in a field that she loves. The art studio was a real world experience for the girls where they were able to participate actively in a career at a venue in their own community.
The visible outcome of Profiles and Portraits is a large, pastel self-portrait of each girl in the program. The goals of giving these girls a vision and actual experience in two careers, with two highly skilled and successful women is something that is as enduring as the physical art.
To learn more about the Weitz CEC please like our Facebook.
Unless otherwise clearly stated, any views or opinions expressed as part of events at the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC) should not be viewed as endorsements by the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and do not reflect the official position of UNO or the University of Nebraska system. Please also be aware, the responsibility for any changes to events held at the Weitz CEC, including cancellation, lie solely with the event organizer and not UNO or the Weitz CEC.