Paola Macas Betchart
2024 Photography & Digital Arts Resident
Paola Macas Betchart (she/they) is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist based in Hodinöhsö’ni territory (Rochester, NY). Her work, which spans photography, mixed media, poetry, and installation, explores the intricate themes of selfhood and rootlessness. She blends art and life through auto-ethnography to reveal personal and collective narratives of resilience and connection. Paola leads two community-centered projects supported by ArtsBloom funding and in partnership with Latino Rochester Theater Company. The first engages youth in storytelling and self-portraiture, fostering identity exploration and self-expression. The second, Visible and Invisible Scars, features eight individuals confronting and symbolically mending their scars, embodying personal healing and collective care. This collaborative work will culminate in an interactive exhibit at The Dark Room Gallery at Flower City Arts Center in June 2025. Paola’s curatorial projects, including Seeing and Loving Myself and Cultural Reflections, center on decolonial perspectives of ancestral memory and sense of self and place. Her art has been showcased in the 68th Finger Lakes Artist Exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery, The Yards, and the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (ROCO). She received the Visual Workshop Studies Award for Pertenezco/I Belong (2022) at the ROCO member exhibit, highlighting her ability to merge artistic inquiry with social reflection. Paola holds degrees in ecology, anthropology, and sustainable development from universities in Ecuador, Belgium, and France, grounding her practice in a commitment to cultural and ecological sustainability.