Senior Melanie Oppenheimer’s portraits on display in Stamp Student Union on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. 

While some students paint as a pastime, Melanie Oppenheimer paints with a purpose. 

The senior Jewish studies major and president of the university’s chapter of the Half the Sky Movement, an advocacy group that seeks to combat worldwide oppression of women, displayed her artwork yesterday in Stamp Student Union’s Atrium as part of the group’s event, “Portraits for Social Change.” 

About 80 students attended the one-day-gallery event, consisting of 10 portraits of women Oppenheimer painted independently throughout the past year. The women she chose to paint are ones whose stories help her advocate for global women’s issues.

“I really wanted to give people not only a glimpse into the woman’s life, but also a glimpse into these issues on a broader scale,” Oppenheimer said. 

The Half the Sky Movement advocacy group is inspired by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and its corresponding documentary. The two materials draw to attention to women’s issues and rights worldwide. 

After applying for a grant through the international Half the Sky Movement, Oppenheimer was able to turn her paintings into an art gallery. 

Each station at the event featured one of her portraits alongside an informational sheet of background, facts and statistics regarding an issue the group is trying to combat. 

There was also a quote from each featured woman, “because it’s interesting to hear what these women have to say, more than just seeing her,” Oppenheimer said. 

Some of the issues addressed included child marriage, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, women’s rights in the Arab world, women in the media and girls’ education.

The painting project began after Oppenheimer heard the story of Malala Yousafzai, the young woman who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because she advocated girls’ education, and decided to paint her. 

Oppenheimer also painted women such as filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom and actress Eliza Maganga Nsese. Some of the featured women she has met; others she has seen in documentaries or in the news, she said. 

“I just wanted to share the amazing women I’ve been meeting and encountering with other people,” Oppenheimer said. 

The portraits act as an attention-grabbing component, said Krishna Bhagat, a graduate assistant for the Global Public Health Scholars program. The visual aspect can connect people to the bigger issue and fully engage them afterward, she said. Even if people come and are just “walking away inspired, that’s great,” she said. 

Nicole Shires, a May 2013 university alumna, came to the event knowing that, as a women’s rights advocate, she’d be interested in the topic.

“I think that a lot of times, especially female activists, they lose their spot — nobody really sees them,” Shires said. “They wanted to put a face to an act.”

The gallery was great for “people who are open to art,” as it allowed people to take away a more unique message, said Brad Hansonsc, a senior kinesiology major. Because there are depictions of women in portrait-style, Hanson said, it was easier to be able to connect a face to the issues.

“It’s actually really fun and exciting for me to paint the women because at first it’s like there’s nothing on the paper,” Oppenheimer said. “And then, all of a sudden, their eyes or the nose comes through, and it feels like I actually have an experience with this woman, and that she’s in the room with me.”

Elisabeth Maring, the group’s adviser and College Park Scholars Global Public Health director, said she was “just floored by [Oppenheimer’s] artwork” and the messages the portraits conveyed. She said this kind of representation also allows people to see the positive message among issues that tend to be depressing to talk about. 

The event also included a beading table, where students could sit together and construct paper beads as part of the Students Rebuild Water Challenge, which raises money to combat water sanitation problems in Tanzania. The group has already made more than 1,000 beads and hoped to make more at this event, Oppenheimer said. 

“People can get hands on and do some art themselves while they’re here,” she said. 

As Maring looked at the paintings displayed around the room, she said she and her colleagues thought, “You know, it would be so wonderful if this could happen in more places.”

And Oppenheimer plans to do just that. 

She hopes to bring her portraits to other universities, holding similar galleries to spread her message.

“I hope that people … understand that this is a problem that affects not just women, but our society as a whole,” Oppenheimer said. “You can do something as simple as paint a portrait, and you know, make change.”