Jennifer Perena
2018 Photography & Digital Arts Resident
Jen Perena received a B.A. in Communications from the University of Dayton. Immediately upon graduation, she traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa, to spend a year volunteering with a small, local,non-profit organization as a grant writer and administrative support person. One year turned into three years, as she found her calling as a teacher, delivering computer training workshops to local people in the language of Krio. Since returning to Rochester, she has been working as a technical trainer for local technology companies. Throughout her lifetime, she has always made art: drawing, painting and mostly taking photographs. In 2001, she was laid off from a job that provided her several months severance, and she used that time to take a Basic Black and White class at the Community Darkroom. Her 'relationship' with Flower City Arts Center was born at that time, and over the past 17 years she has been an active Darkroom/Photo Dept volunteer, Board member, teacher and volunteer with the Studio 678 youth photo program, and student. She has taken dozens of classes at the Center, throughout all the program areas, though her focus is mainly photography, and specifically alternative and historic processes. Most recently, she has been devoting her time to making kallitype contact prints, some of which she then watercolors, combining her love of painting and craft with this alternative process. Read about Jen's AIR experience on our blog: