Making Portraits: Chanel Thervil

June 8: Chanel Thervil: Portraits with Purpose. Celebrating Character, Resiliency, Strength, and Joy
Artist Chanel Thervil’s vivid portraits celebrate the essential character and spirit of her subjects. Hear how she uses a combination of conversation and mixed media to develop an image that captures personality and life experience as well as a likeness.Thervil will talk about inspiration she finds in the positive energy and accomplishments of friends and neighbors, strong relationships, and Black joy. This talk is presented by the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division, and Robbins Library to support “Elevating Arlington Voices of Color” a new collection highlighting the experiences and perspective of people of color living, working, or going to school in Arlington. Chanel Thervil will be returning to Arlington for a public art project in August, 2021 as the Arlington Commission for the Arts’ third Artist-in-Residence. Join us in welcoming her! Via Zoom, Tuesday, June 8, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Learn more and register.

June 13: BIPOC Workshop with Chanel Thervil: Celebrating Friends, Family & Neighbors. How to Make a Portrait that Captures the People you Love.
Explore ways of thinking about how you construct a portrait of someone in your family, circle of friends or community. What are their most important qualities? How have they overcome challenges? How do you translate these qualities and experiences into a portrait using images or words? As a part of this continued programming for the Elevating Arlington’s Voices of Color project, this workshop is open to community members who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, ages 16 and older, and no art experience necessary. Limited to 25. Via Zoom, Sunday, June 13, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Register Now.

About the artist: Chanel Thervil is a Haitian American artist and educator who uses varying combinations of abstraction and portraiture to convene communal dialogue around culture, social issues, and existential questions. At the core of her practice lies a desire to empower and inspire tenderness and healing among communities of color through the arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Pace University and a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She’s been making a splash in Boston via her educational collaborations, public art, and residencies with institutions such as: The Museum of Fine Arts, The Boston Children’s Museum, Google, Boston Center for the Arts, The DeCordova Museum, The Harvard Ed Portal, and The Cambridge Public Library. Her work has been featured by PBS Kids, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Bay State Banner, WBUR’s ARTery, WGBH, and Hyperallergic.