WORKSHOP/RESIDENCY PROJECT

In 1999, Anni Mackay launched the Rochester Intergenerational Art on the Park Project—an immersive, low-cost arts program that brought together people of all ages on the town green. With her 18-month-old daughter on her hip, Mackay and fellow local artists built a 20-foot dragon from recycled materials, painted a mural for the children's section of the library, and hosted live model drawing classes—all for just $5 a day.

For over 25 years, Mackay has worked to build an art-centered community organization supporting rural sustainability. She founded BigTown Gallery in 2003, and BigTown Projects Inc., the non-profit arm of BigTown Gallery, in 2012 following years of community-based arts engagement.

In 2024, BigTown Projects renewed its long-standing commitment to art education with a pilot workshop and residency. Participants from across the region—including a local high school student—joined a 10-day photography intensive led by master photographers Jim Dow and Cassandra Klos. Their generosity, paired with Rochester’s rural setting, created a transformative experience that reignited each participant’s creative passion.

The workshop continues in 2025, once again featuring Dow and Klos, furthering BigTown’s mission to inspire, educate, and connect through the arts.

PAST WORKSHOPS

MY PLACE Photography Workshop SUMMER 2024

with JIM DOW & CASSANDRA KLOS

and special guests VIRGINIA BEAHAN & PETER MORIARTY

How do you show such a place through photography to someone who has never been there?

MY PLACE Photography Workshop focused on visual meaning through photography. The participants were asked to think of the subject matter, a place (physical or metaphorical) that is meaningful to them, as an extension of themselves — their interests and idea — with total freedom to represent it as they wished. The core of this process was to think about something, in this case, to think through looking, employing the resulting images to convey the meaning(s) that you intend.

Thanks to the hard work of our instructors, master photographers Jim Dow and Cassandra Klos, and the incredible enthusiasm of our five diverse participants, this pilot workshop exceeded our expectaitons. After 10 days of intensive, self-directed work, the MY PLACE participants came to Rochester the weekend of the 18th to work on their projects. With wonderful guidance, they left with their hard-won confidence from the reward of learning, looking and thinking deeply about the science and nature of photography. AND were so proud to exhibit the results of their time with us in the Projects Space gallery.

In conjunction with the AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY exhibition that ran JULY 5 - SEPTEMBER 15, 2024.