Talks begin January 26 at 6:30pm

We've heard from artists that Rochester can be a little hard to break into. This event is intended to help us all connect and support each other, especially those who are new to Rochester.

Welcome! brings together a diverse and eclectic group of creatives to help build a more supportive and sustainable art community. This gathering will highlight several artists ranging from dancers to photographers to musicians, and will focus on those who have recently moved here or have returned to Rochester. Each creative will introduce themselves, their practice, and what they hope to achieve in Rochester. Come out and show these artists a warm welcome!

Attendees should expect to make introductions, propose collaborations, and network. Artists will be announced closer to the event. If you would like to attend don't wait. Attendance is free but limited. Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/welcome-ii-tickets-480851408507

About the Artists

Susan Begy is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores topics such as power dynamics, gender, nurturance, polarity, hypocrisy, and productive cooperation. She makes graphite drawings and stone sculptures using sinuous, twisting forms that embody our entanglement with one another and how we wrestle with living together. She develops collaborative projects that playfully reimagine human interactions and institutions, with her Econival project selected as a finalist for a 2015 Creative Capital grant in Emerging Fields and featured on Creative Capital’s On Our Radar in 2016. Her Art Collision & Repair Shop project, in which teams of artists transform the "stalled" work of other artists, debuted at Center for Contemporary Art Santa Fe in 2014-15 and was a coalescing force in the Santa Fe art community. In Spring 2022, as Artist in Residence at Writers & Books in Rochester she created the Wishbones project in which she carved abstract alabaster sculptures in response to stories collected from community members. In 2010, Begy earned her MFA in Fine Art from School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her works have been exhibited in contemporary art centers and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. She has co-founded and co-directed artist-run exhibition spaces in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. A native Rochesterian, Begy recently returned home after 20 years living in other U.S. cities. @susanbegy

Carlos Castellanos is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher with a wide array of interests such as cybernetics, ecology, embodiment, phenomenology, artificial intelligence and transdisciplinary collaboration. His work bridges science, technology, education and the arts, developing a network of creative interaction with living systems, the natural environment and emerging technologies. His artworks have been exhibited at local, national and international events such as the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), SIGGRAPH and Centro del Carmen de Cultura Contemporánea (CCCC) in Valencia, Spain. He is also a founding member of Phylum, an interdisciplinary research collective working at the intersection of science, technology and the arts. Castellanos is Assistant Professor at the School of Interactive Games & Media (IGM), Rochester Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), Simon Fraser University and an MFA from the CADRE Laboratory for New Media, San Jose State University.

Julie Chen is an interdisciplinary artist looking at intersections of mortality, memory, and place. She processes deeply personal memories and historical events with cinematographic, architectural, and naturalist aesthetics in a broad scale from large atrium-sized spectacles to small objects of wonder. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Julie first studied and worked in architecture, and later completed a BFA in Multimedia and Performing Arts from the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. She also has a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the Hartford Art School from the University of Hartford, completing her thesis entitled “Evidence of Memory” about her exploration of objects tied to memories of loss and grief.

Katie Kindelan grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and earned her BFA in studio art at the University of Memphis. She went on to complete an MA in art education at the University of Arizona, where she focused on researching and designing curricula that encourage ecological awareness in contemporary art and art-making. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area she moved to Rochester in 2021 to teach at The Harley School. She has been working on a body of paintings titled “Fleeting” for the past 3 years. @katiekindelan

Onyedikachi Princewill Robinson, also known as Prorate Create, was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He started painting at the age of 12 to express himself and the living conditions he saw on a daily basis. Growing up painting was looked upon as less than and was not appropriate. He was told countless times to stop and focus his attention on something more useful to help his family. So he did. A few years later, Robinson had another opportunity to paint because he was put in an unfortunate situation which caused him to become homeless. Seeing all the elderly people coming and going to and from the homeless shelter inspired him to pick back up his pen. He started sketching then painting. Robinson joined a youth program while still homeless and saw how everyone appreciated his art, which gave him the motivation and confidence to create huge portraits of people’s expressions around him. Since 2016 he has been painting and evolving with new inspirations and new ideas. He plans to continue to grow as life takes him on its beautiful journey. @princewillstar

Eryk Salvaggio is a new media artist and researcher whose process includes collaborations with migrating birds, mushrooms, and artificial intelligence systems. His work has been exploring connections between culture, ecosystems and technology since the 1990s, integrating art with research and design. He is focused on thoughtful (and often playfully subversive) questions about what technology means for society and our planet. @cyberneticforests