The Beginning: Photography and Arts
Polaroids © Cotton Miller
NicaPhoto began in 2005 as a series of photography workshops for disadvantaged youth in Nagarote, Nicaragua. The idea was to give young people access to the creative tools needed to express their stories and discover their vision. Looking through the lens, or on the screen, gave them the opportunity to see their world in a different way. The workshops were a huge success, and since that time NicaPhoto has grown to be a comprehensive, holistic youth development program including education, art and personal development. All of our art classes are designed to build creative expression, critical thinking, artistic sensibility and self confidence.
Founder & Executive Director
Founder & Executive Director, Ronnie Ellen Maher is a professional and fine art photographer. Ronnie spent years teaching photography to disadvantaged and “at-risk” youth and coordinating a group of artists to teach in Norwalk, Connecticut, prior to beginning NicaPhoto. Ronnie worked with a variety of community based programs in Norwalk including: Briggs (Alternative) High School, The Carver Foundation, Family and Children’s Agency, Norwalk Housing Authority, and Norwalk Public Schools.
Throughout the years NicaPhoto has presented the work of it’s youth at various gallery shows in the US. Following is a link to the work exhibited in Hope:Forgotten but not Lost, a show at The Haviland Street Gallery in South Norwalk, CT and a show at the Westport Art Center in Westport, CT.
From January of 2011 - 2014, NicaPhoto and students at The Carver Center of Norwalk, CT participated in a cultural exchange of photographs and writing. In August of 2011, a group of 6 Carver students, along with a staff member and Executive Director, Novelette Peterkin, visited Nicaragua to meet and work alongside their Nicaraguan counterparts. A book based on the exchange was published in 2014.
NicaPhoto has partnered with, Christopher James, University Professor and Director of the MFA Program at Lesley University, in order to realize a long time dream of having professional, high quality teaching artists expose our children to the world of photography and art. In 2016 Alicia Turbitt, an MFA student at Lesley University and Cotton Miller, a graduate of Lesley both participated in our first Artist Brigade spending the week in Nicaragua running photography workshops for our children of NicaPhoto.
