Rose Marasco chats with attendees at the opening of her exhibit, “My Nature,” at the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland on July 2. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Rose Marasco first taught photography in an old apartment building in Utica, New York. 

With the help of some construction workers, she turned a kitchen in one apartment into a darkroom. She put tack boards on the wall and held lectures in the living room. 

She was in her mid-20s at the time, and established the photography department at Munson-Williams-Proctor-Arts Institute, now the Pratt Munson College of Art and Design.

When she moved to Portland five years later in 1979 to continue her teaching career at the University of Southern Maine, the arts scene in the city was thriving.

“I remember many nights riding around the West End looking for a parking space, and then I’d be walking home, and I’d look up. I’d see a guy with an easel in the window,” said Marasco. So, a lot of artists lived on Winter Street because it was cheap and it was close to town.”

Though the price of housing in Portland has since skyrocketed, the city still has a vibrant arts community. But now, many artists find it harder than ever to afford rent and living expenses.

Even so, Marasco, now 77, believes an art career is worthwhile. After 40 years of teaching, Marasco is dedicating herself to a new mission to help advance the careers of young artists. The Rose Marasco Visual Arts Scholarship, a statewide program beginning this year, will fund high school students who want to study any art medium at an art department or art college of their choice.

As an art form, Marasco said, photography hasn’t always been appreciated.

“There was prejudice against it in some ways because people just think, what are you doing? Copying? It doesn’t require any skill.”

To Marasco, though, photography requires not only study and practice, but following one’s creative impulses. She doesn’t see her inspiration as a muse, but rather something internal.

In her latest exhibit, Marasco followed her creative impulses to photograph a sheet on a clothesline, which looked like a bird to her, and several illustrated prints that she placed in branches outside. The photographs, which she produced during her residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, were taken quickly, even though the prints kept blowing around in the wind.

Portlanders interested in photography can view this exhibit, “My Nature,” at the Maine Jewish Museum until Aug. 27. Marasco will also be giving a talk there on July 23 at 5 p.m. 

Nanci Kahn, the curator of photography at the Maine Jewish Museum, said she has admired Marasco’s work for many years. The two moved to Portland around the same time.

A photographer herself, Kahn finds Marasco’s work inspiring, and the two share a creative focus on nature. Khan regularly photographs plant life, especially water lilies. She even went out onto a frozen lake to photograph a lily under water. 

“Rose has been taking these beautiful — they look like Audubon — drawings, and putting them out in nature … It gives me pause to think about what I could investigate,” said Kahn. 

Rose Marasco, right, chats with attendees at the opening of her exhibit, “My Nature,” at the Maine Jewish Museum. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Though Marasco has since risen to prominence as an acclaimed photographer — her work has been reviewed by outlets like The New York Times and her photographs exhibited in museums and colleges across the country — her path to success wasn’t easy.

While on a business trip, Marasco’s father died unexpectedly at 37, leaving the family struggling.

“It was the most horrific night of my life, really,” said Marasco. “Because we were there waiting for him to come home. The table was all set.”

Marasco found solace taking the bus to the museum school in Utica, where she took a sculpture class and developed a love of art.

Then, Marasco received a scholarship to go to the local community college, and later another scholarship to attend Syracuse University, where she received her Bachelor in Fine Arts degree.

Years later, Marasco returned to the museum school, then Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, to teach.

To Marasco, the scholarship she has launched has special meaning because of her history.

“I personally benefited from scholarships, and I wanted to give something back to the Maine community,” she said.

Jackie Shannon, Maine Community Fund scholarship manager, worked with Marasco to set up the scholarship.

“This is the only scholarship at MaineCF exclusively supporting students pursuing visual arts and has the potential to impact many aspiring artists,” said Shannon. “Rose has decided that the type of medium be intentionally vague, which gives students the freedom to pursue their medium of choice.”

Marasco said she was shocked that such a scholarship didn’t already exist.

“The arts are something here,” she said. “Culturally, monetarily, economically, whatever. I mean, it’s known for being a place of the arts, especially the visual arts, and poetry.”

More information about the scholarship will be available on www.mainecf.org in September, and applications will open in the fall.

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IF YOU GO

“My Nature,” through Aug. 27 at the Maine Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St., Portland. Marasco will give an artist’s talk at 5 p.m. on July 23. For more information, go to mainejewishmuseum.org