S C A R S

SCARS is a collaborative photographic exploration that honors both pain and the possibility of renewal. Through an intimate visual narrative, artist-in-residence Paola Macas Betchart invites us to reflect on the body, memory, and the land. Beginning with her own healing process, Paola brings together ten collaborators in a unique photographic performance where analog and digital black-and-white images are created in a ritual space where stories are shared as mutual witness in confidential sisterhood and images are birthed to then mend them through embroidery in a shared act of repair and reclamation.

These visible and invisible scars tell stories of colonization, industrialization, displacement, survival, and resistance. From Native communities reasserting their connection to the land, to African descendants embracing joy in the shadow of forced removal, to immigrant families reclaiming home, the individual stories imprinted in each of our bodies are nested in Gä'skosägo (Rochester, NY) where they become a broader story of systemic abuse and intergenerational trauma that remind us of the power of community and collective.

We invite you to witness this journey through an evocative visual installation, join us in reflection and dialogue, and share in the power of collective storytelling. The exhibit will be on display from June 6th to June 28th 2025.

We are proud to honor the Photo Collaborators (in alphabetical order):

• Almeta Whitis
• Ambar de Santiago
• Ayeong Kim (Pamela Adams)
• Cassandra Bocanegra
• Debora McDell Hernandez
• Gä'skosägo (Rochester, NY)
• Iman Abid
• Juliana Muniz
• Lauren Jimerson
• Serena Viktor

With photography and conceptual direction by: Paola Macas Betchart, Artist-in-Residence at Flower City Arts Center

Special Thanks to program director Juliana Muniz for her mentorship and photographer Monica Mullen for the aerial photos.

This exhibit is part of the Alchemy of Healing Project funded by Arts Bloom Funds from the City of Rochester and Administered by Rochester Latino Theater Company.