family connection By Susan Grandpre  

Two brothers, ages 6 and 7, hold hands in a photograph. It’s clear how much they love and need each other. A photo of six siblings displays the strength of each child. The face of four-year-old Juanita transforms the room.
This is the Heart Gallery, an exhibit hosted by the Children’s Museum of Richmond that displays portraits of 24 children awaiting adoption in the tri-cities area. They all share the hope that someone will see their photo at the exhibit, read a short narrative about them and then inquire about adopting them.
The portraits were all taken by local photographers who donated their time and talents to the Heart Gallery. The photographs, some taken in black and white and others in color, capture the individual spirit of each child. They are professionally mounted and framed by a local business.
The Heart Gallery concept began in Santa Fe, N.M., in March of 2001. Since that exhibit’s inception, Heart Galleries have opened in 48 states around the country featuring children in those specific geographic regions who await adoption. To the Heart Gallery’s credit, the project has met with great success, finding families for more than 1000 children.
The mission of each Heart Gallery is twofold: to raise the awareness of the need for permanent loving families for the many children living in foster care while awaiting adoption, and to find families for the specific children pictured.
The Richmond-area Heart Gallery serves as another avenue to inform people that on average more than 1500 children in Virginia live without their biological families while needing and deserving a loving and safe family to call their own.
Many of the children featured in the Heart Gallery are children considered to be difficult to place either because they are part of a sibling group or because they are older children who simply tend to be harder to place because of their age and not through any fault of their own.
The Heart Gallery will be display at the Children’s Museum of Richmond until November 16. Other venues are being planned for the future.
More information about Heart Galleries throughout the state can be found through the Virginia Department of Social Services website at www.dss.virginia.gov.

Susan Grandpre earned a B.A. in English from James Madison University and has been a freelance writer for nine years. She lives in Richmond with her husband and three children.

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