'Not forgotten': Artists invite Rochester to sketch shooting victims for public memorial

One of the portraits hanging outside the Rochester Contemporary Art Center features a young man staring directly at visitors.

"I can see the kindness in your eyes," an unknown artist wrote next to the drawing.

Another takes the side profile of a man in a baseball cap, with several overlapping line drawings traced at different angles, as if the man is lifting his head to look up at the sky.

"Who would you have become if given the chance?" the drawing reads.

Both images are part of a new art installation at the museum will double as a practice in ritual mourning, as artists leading the project invite community members to come together Friday night to sketch the faces of gun violence victims and survivors for a planned memorial.

The Rochester Contemporary Art Center will kick off the installation with a vigil from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday in its outdoor garden at 137 East Ave.

"I think so often the issue of gun violence gets caught up in this political debate," said Martin Krafft, who designed the project alongside fellow artist Elena Makansi. "And I think with this tracing, it really moves the conversation in a different direction. It's a slow process where you really have to see the person and sit with their loss. I haven't really found a comparable way of just having to sit with the absence that some violence creates."

How did this art project end up in Rochester?

The project titled "Who Will Be Next?" was first installed in Arizona in 2017. Krafft said the project was a way for him and Makansi to respond to "what felt like the inevitability of gun violence and mass shootings."

They invited community members to submit photographs and short letters to their loved ones impacted by gun violence, and then held vigils inviting neighbors to help memorialize them using Sharpies and a light box to trace the images.

"The goal is to respond to what feels like this pervasive thing that we don't have the language or the space to respond to," Krafft said.

In 2021, he took up two art residencies at Rochester's Flower City Arts Center and the Visual Studies Workshop. The same year, Rochester broke a 30-year city record for the most homicides in a single year and had one of the highest murder rates per capita nationwide.

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Krafft connected with Bleu Cease, executive director and curator at the art center, known as RoCo, and the pair made plans to feature the project locally.

Wanda Ridgeway from Rise Up Rochester, a nonprofit that works with victims of violence, helped recruit photographs and letters from local families dealing with loss.

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"We want to let people know that there's healing," Ridgeway said. "You want to keep your loved ones' memories alive. I think this is just an outlet to let people know, 'Hey, we're here. We understand what's going on. You're not forgotten about.'"

How can you contribute to the project?

Community members are invited to hear from local survivors of gun violence, participate in a reading of names, and contribute to the tracings ― which will be on display at the museum through December.

Residents who would like their loved one to be featured can submit a photograph and a short letter to director@martinkrafft.com throughout the length of the exhibition.

Kayla Canne reports on community justice and safety efforts for the Democrat and Chronicle. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com or on Twitter @kaylacanne.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Shooting memorial features community sketches of Rochester NY victims