Artist Rana Amirtahmasebi Receives Grant to Transform Historic Vault into Immersive Artwork

White Plains, N.Y. (May 11, 2026) – The Janet Langsam Vault Project and ArtsWestchester announced its fourth grant award to Dobbs Ferry artist Rana Amirtahmasebi in the amount of $3,500 to create an artwork that transforms ArtsWestchester’s gallery vault into an immersive world of clay, color and intricate pattern. The Vault Project was established to recognize Janet Langsam, ArtsWestchester’s former CEO of 33 years and to continue the tradition of awarding grants to eligible artists for their innovative proposals to create memorable art installations in the organizations’ historic Mosler vault.

Rana Amirtahmasebi’s artwork entitled Continuum: Terra is a site-specific installation created for ArtsWestchester’s vault that explores pattern and repetition as central carriers of meaning rather than decoration. The artwork, inspired by the artist’s Iranian background, draws on architectural context in which these patterns also function as a spatial and philosophical device—guiding the eye, structuring movement and suggesting infinity through repetition. Using clay and color, the installation constructs an immersive environment within the vault.

Created in a time of severe political tension, conflict, and social overload, the vault installation becomes a refuge: a dreamlike interior of visual immersion that invites a moment of pause. The installation’s pattern known as “the hat,” which displays prominently in the work, is a mathematical form that can extend infinitely without repeating in the same way. Its endless variation recalls the dense ornamental environments of Middle Eastern palaces, bazaars and religious spaces, evoking the visual abundance that shaped the artist’s childhood in Iran.

At the same time, the work is tied to a more fragile impulse: a fear of losing such spaces to war, bombs and missiles — and with them, the textures of memory they hold. In this sense, the project attempts to build a permanent visual memory from childhood, translating pattern into both refuge and remembrance.

The Janet Langsam Vault Project seeks to create an opportunity for visionary artists to experiment, expand their practices, and have their voices heard. ArtsWestchester provides funding to exhibiting artists to conceptualize and realize site-responsive installations that also engage with important topics in the community. Langsam explains: “As vaults traditionally hold objects of high value, this space is a permanent venue for artists to create, explore and contribute to meaningful conversations. The Vault Project is meant to elevate the intrinsic value of the arts beyond the marketplace.”

About the Artist:

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.

Based in New York, Amirtahmasebi has worked internationally in urban planning, cultural strategy and public space. She holds graduate degrees from MIT in architecture and city planning. As an immigrant, she is especially drawn to the capacity of art and objects to carry cultural experience, preserving memory, identity and belonging across geographies.

Continuum: Terra is on display at ArtsWestchester as part of the Janet Langsam Vault Project from Sat., May 16 – Sun., Aug. 2. A public opening reception is being held on May 16, 5-7pm.

ArtsWestchester’s Gallery is located at 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY. Gallery hours are: Wed., – Fri and Sun. 12-5pm; Sat, 12-6pm. More info: https://artswestchester.org/gallery/