SaraMarie Bottaro explores communication, community

SaraMarie Bottaro balances her interests in peace and justice studies (PJS) and her multimedia work in graphic arts and bookmaking with the elegance and grace of a dancer. But, for the fifth-year School of the Museum of Fine Art (SMFA) dual degree student from San Diego, Calif., this should come as no surprise; Botero danced competitively with Tufts Ballroom for three years before ending her career last year to focus on her studies. She was competition coordinator for one year along with New England Conservatory dual degree student Isabelle Zeledon.

This year, she is also balancing her senior thesis at the SMFA with a PJS capstone project which is due in the spring. While her PJS project is still in the works, her current senior thesis art project deals with connection, specifically the way we relate to each other through different forms of communication. Bottaro describes her hypothesis succinctly.

“[F]or meaningful connections to be formed, the action you’re doing needs to be outward-facing, self-specific and other-targeted,”  she said.

Bottaro is collecting letters and delving into correspondence -- her own and those written by friends -- to form unique book projects that explore the history and impact of communication through letter writing. After all, letters are, according to Bottaro, not just a type of communication but “a gift.” Bottaro describes letters as a vehicle to investigate “ideas of connections ... and how meaningful connections are formed between people.” She hopes that, in the future, such ideas will guide her PJS work.

Given her dual focus, it should come as no surprise that Bottaro uses art to talk about issues she has dealt with in PJS, as well as to understand them and process their complexity.

“I don’t think I could’ve gotten through those classes without art, and without that art training of how to think and process ideas and release them in a constructive way,” she said.

Furthermore, she believes that “crucial change can’t happen without strong communities” and now is using her letters and communication project to understand how we build these communities.

Bottaro herself has been actively involved in fostering strong communities, both at Tufts and at the SMFA, for several years. She has served as an Orientation Leader (OL) at Tufts, mentoring first-year students in the intensive dual degree program at Tufts and the SMFA.

“I’m a stronger student at both schools because of my experience in being in both [the SMFA and Tufts]," she said.

Bottaro said that her involvement as an OL was about fostering a strong community at both schools and among dual degree students themselves.

"[I]t’s important to me that the program is cohesive and that we all support each other,” she said.

Bottaro is now working toward her ultimate goal of becoming a practicing studio artist while still looking at post-grad jobs in both marketing and art-specific positions. With the dual degree, Bottaro has a multitude of options, and her work ethic and desire to implement positive change in the community will be instrumental to the development and progress of whichever community she joins next.