Walk into most art school studios and you will find pieces of him in white plaster: the Sculpture of David, or some version of the classical male form. For many sculpture and drawing students, he is the only face they have handled up close in three dimensions.

Plaster cast study is foundational to arts education for a reason. A sculpture cast holds still as your instructor marks where the light falls on lips with their pencil. It shows you tangible form in real light and real space — the way a photograph never quite can.

— OSA Diploma Program Coordinator

When a student spends an hour drawing the curve of a brow or the architecture of a cheekbone from a sculpture, something happens in their hands and their mind that no digital reference can replicate. They begin to understand volume. Mass. The way light moves across a face. That knowledge stays.

The question is: whose face are they learning to see?

Whose face are they learning to see?

Ottawa School of Art's current sculpture cast teaching collection is drawn from reproductions of masculine sculptures because they were the most affordable sculpture casts available to us.

They are excellent teaching tools — but they are an incomplete picture of the human face.

The faces our students will be asked to draw, paint, and sculpt in their careers and in their lives are not a monolith. They are feminine. They are Black, Indigenous, Asian, Middle Eastern. Faces that have always been worth studying — and that have rarely appeared in the formal teaching collections of Western art institutions.

Because feminine plaster casts have historically cost significantly more than their masculine counterparts, OSA's current collection is comprised entirely of masculine forms.

What we're aiming for — and why now

OSA students at our ByWard Market campus have been asking for more cast forms — specifically feminine faces. Their instructor has pointed to the Venus sculpture as the ideal starting point: facial feature casts drawn from one of art history's most studied feminine forms.

Feminine faces present distinct observational challenges — a different orbital structure, a different brow, a different turn of the jaw. Our students deserve the tools to study those distinct challenges.

How you can help us

We are raising $1000 to purchase a set of feminine plaster cast busts and facial feature moulds.

This is a small goal, but it has an outsized impact.

Your gift helps us expand our collection of female sculpture cast moulds — essential tools that strengthen foundational training for our students.

By supporting this initiative, you give instructors and emerging artists access to accurate anatomical references that deepen learning, improve technical skill, and create a more inclusive and enriching educational environment.

Your contribution directly enhances hands on arts education and empowers the next generation of sculptors.