Now in its nineteenth year, Collaborations is an intensive, after-school Access and Community Education program that celebrates photography and encourages cooperation and teamwork between the Houston-area high school students as they create an exhibition from beginning to end. For fifteen weeks, the students met once a week at HCP and at partner organizations like the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Hardy & Nance Studios to discuss various photographic processes, view original works by master photographers, and learn about various professional paths related to photography and lens-based art by interacting with curators, educators, and collection managers.

Anne Houang, Access and Community Education Associate

Throughout the course of Collaborations, our instructor encouraged us to think about our photographs as a cohesive body of work so that we could discover our interests, voice, and style, explore specific techniques that would help us articulate our ideas, and develop a clear artist’s 

vision that will evolve with time. As we collaborated and worked side by side, the guest speakers and critique sessions assisted us in identifying a connection linking everyone’s work. When it came time to put our work together for the exhibition, we noticed a unifying theme in our photographs: rootedness in where we find ourselves. 

The title Rooted refers to our diverse experiences that unite us in Houston. Whether they have their roots in our respective cultures, difficulties with mental health, self-identity, or everyday life, all our images are the result of personal experiences. We all come from diverse backgrounds, have unique experiences to tell, and, ultimately, we found ourselves in the same location at the same time to produce and exhibit this collection of works. 

Angenella Scarano, Collaborations XIX Participant