Artist Panel Discussion | “Preserving Community”
Panelists: Exhibiting artists Chioma Nwana, Christina Picciano, Rana Amirtahmasebi
Moderated by Megan Meadowlark
A conversation with the artists from ArtsWestchester’s current season of exhibitions. This discussion will allow for a deep dive into each artist’s practice and will explore the ways in which art can function as an act of resistance against community erasure and displacement.
Rana Amirtahmasebi is an artist, architect and urban planner whose multidisciplinary practice converges ceramics, printmaking and cartography. Her work occupies the space between image and object,and between ornament and function. Drawing on pattern, repetition, and spatial composition, she creates pieces that are both tactile and narrative. Rooted in her Iranian background and shaped by her training in architecture and urbanism, her practice reflects an ongoing inquiry into memory, place, and the human experience of space.
Chioma Nwana is a documentary photographer, photojournalist and archivist from White Plains, NY. Her work focuses on preserving collective memory, correcting erasure and accurately depicting current realities of underrepresented communities.
She graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism in May 2024 with honors and a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. Her master’s project, We All We Got: A Photographic Exploration of the Past, Present and Future of Historically Black Neighborhoods in White Plains, NY, was exhibited in Columbia’s Pulitzer Hall from May 2024 to May 2025.
Christina Picciano is a queer artist, musician and community organizer based in Ossining, NY, and the founder of the Hudson Valley Queer Collective, fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas.
For over a decade, Picciano has produced inclusive, equity-driven arts programming that uplifts LGBTQ+ voices and builds accessible community spaces across Westchester and the Hudson Valley. In 2025 alone, working on a shoestring budget, she hosted and/or performed at 40 events across 14 venues, including 15 music performances, six Pride shows, 26 LGBTQ+ community events and 14 Queeraoke gatherings. She curates and leads a LGBTQ+ Social Justice in Art, Music, and Media workshop, which explores representation, history and cultural impact.
