Forget ME Not: A Collective Community Art Project Made in Response to October 25, 2023
November 7, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: November 7, 6 – 9pm
Art has the ability to say things that words cannot, to reach people on a visceral level. Art making, as a practice and a process, creates a container within which incremental healing can take place alongside the emergence of new meaning. This sculpture is an artifact of one such community process, at one point in time.
Conceived and realized through the collaborative efforts of artists Traci Molloy, Jen McDermott, and Justin Moriarty—and comprised of handmade elements created by more than 165 members of the greater Lewiston-Auburn community—Forget ME Not is an expression of the participants’ complex emotions in the aftermath of collective trauma.
To engage with this artwork is a living experience. Our hope is that it will support the ongoing process of healing from the tragedy, on individual and community levels. The exhibit is offered as a sacred space for mourning, celebration, and resilience. We invite you to enter just as you are.
Forget Me Not was made possible by generous support from the Elmina B. Sewell Foundation.
Photos by Jen McDermott
About the Artwork
This freestanding structure (11.5’x10.5’x10.5’) is intended for both external viewing and internal contemplation. Viewers approaching the sculpture from the outside see an 8-foot wall of deep blue fabric in an ombré gradient cascading onto the floor of the gallery. The vibrant blues pay homage to the Androscoggin River, which connects the communities of Lewiston and Auburn, visualizing the weight of the ever-shifting grief following the tragedy.
Above the fabric component is a 3.5-foot conical form comprised of 92 mylar panels, which emanate light. This chorus of imagery, created by regional youth and adults, feature symbols of hope and emotional support, tributes to the victims, and iconography celebrating the state of Maine.
Upon entering the sculpture, the viewer sees a ceiling depicting a tempestuous nighttime sky. Floating throughout the sky are small, golden circles that function as tributary stars. These paintings and drawings are filled with heartfelt iconography, each one created by a community member who was deeply impacted by the shooting. The central image depicts a hand signing “I love you” in American Sign Language. Radiating from the hand, are the names of the 18 people killed in the shooting. The date, October 25th, 2023, encircles the hand. The names and date, painted in lustrous gold, shimmer and refract light from different vantage points.
Eighteen deep purple-colored walls rise to meet the turbulent sky. On each wall is a series of hand-crocheted forget me not flowers. There are 859 flowers total, representing the aggregate years of the lives lost. Each wall is dedicated to one victim and is covered with the number of hand-crocheted forget-me-not flowers that corresponds to their age, ranging in total from 14 to 76. The uniqueness of each handcrafted flower celebrates the individuality of every person, honoring the beautiful moments of their lives.
About the Artists
Traci Molloy is a Brooklyn-based artist, collaborator, public speaker, and education advocate. For over 25 years, she’s been facilitating large-scale, multimedia, collaborative art projects with trauma survivors. Her projects have been exhibited nationwide, in venues including the United Nations, National September 11th Memorial and Museum, Pentagon, Norman Rockwell Museum, and the CDC’s Global Health Odyssey Museum.
Molloy is curious about the ways humans process trauma and grief, and about the impact life-altering traumas can have on individuals, communities, and society. Her collaborations provide trauma survivors with an artistic platform to share their truths, process, and heal. They are complex tributes to the difficulties we encounter, and walk alongside with, in life. Her goal as an artist is to make hope manifest visually.
For more information, visit: www.cultivating-empathy.com or @tracimolloy on Instagram.
Jen McDermott is a Maine-based artist and educator whose work centers on community, memory, and the restorative potential of collective artmaking. Forget ME Not reminds us of what we have in common, of our shared humanity, that we all struggle, dream, and hope for something better. Through her practice, McDermott creates spaces where art becomes a mechanism for processing loss, holding onto memories, and reflecting on the experiences that shape us. She has designed and led a wide variety of programs for diverse communities, all focused on creating moments of recognition where participants are seen, valued, and connected through shared creative experience.
Justin Moriarty is an interdisciplinary artist whose work emerges from a deep reverence for the natural world and the unseen forces that shape human experience. Guided by a calling to reveal the pure, magical beauty already present in existence, he creates performances, stories, and images that invite audiences to encounter wonder in the everyday. Rooted in reflection, community, and spiritual awareness, his practice seeks to make the invisible visible — illuminating the quiet dialogue between nature, spirit, and creative expression.
Moriarty was involved in the design and fabrication of the Forget ME Not sculptural installation. He provided a studio for creating the piece, as well as tools, materials, and skilled support for fabrication. He also offered transportation as needed for procuring supplies and materials, and generally provided support to help ensure the successful implementation of the Collective Art Project.
Project Partners
Dr. Virginia Dearani is an educator, writer, and scholar devoted to reimagining education as a living practice of wholeness. She serves as Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine, and holds a Doctorate in Literacy and Curriculum Design from the University of Maine, Orono.
Rooted in a life of teaching from spirit, radical love, and grace, Virginia approaches education as both sacred work and communal art. Her scholarship and practice center on Whole Teacher/Whole Child development, Cross-Cultural Pedagogy, and Peace Education, guided by a deep belief that teaching is a pathway toward healing, belonging, and transformation.
Virginia believes that classrooms and the third spaces we create in community are living ecologies of spirit and story—places where love is practiced in relationship and learning becomes an embodied act of grace. She finds joy in co-creating spaces where children, teachers, and communities remember their interdependence and their capacity to flourish together.
Virginia served as the Community Liaison for the Forget ME Not Project, fostering community support, coordinating schedules for hands-on art workshops, recruiting participants, and facilitating the workshops across various cities. She helped coordinate with the artists, project partners, and the Lewiston/Auburn communities, supported the creation of the sculpture, and provided general assistance as needed to ensure the successful implementation of the Forget ME Not Project.
For more information, visit www.virginiadearaniconsulting.com or www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-dearani.
James Ford, MBA MsED, recently retired from Education. He was the Restorative Practice Coordinator and Family and Community Support Coordinator for Lewiston Public Schools, and was certified in Social Studies and Special Education.
James served as the Equity Consultant on the Forget ME Not Project. He is currently on the Maine State Board of Education and the Maine Charter School Commission.
Bridge to Belong was founded on the understanding that collective trauma disrupts not only individual lives but entirecommunities—undermining belonging, resilience, and the natural networks of support that are vital to healing. But we also know that within every community, there are bridgebuilders—leaders who step forward to sustain pathways of connection, repair, and renewal. This work is to support and sustain those pathways that have been born and strengthened because of tragedy.
While trauma has the power to isolate, healing has the power to reconnect. This is why projects like the Forget ME Not Project matter—not only as a way to process what has happened but as an opportunity to rebuild safety, sustain spaces for connection, and create something that honors loss while affirming life. Through shared storytelling, art, and intentional spaces for healing, we can begin to shift the weight of collective trauma toward strengthening collective wellbeing.
Bridge to Belong brings together over 25 years of experience, and our recent book relative to collective healing, trauma-informed leadership, and intercultural community resilience. Through training, facilitation, and arts-based approaches, we work alongside communities to sustain the reconnection of hope and compassion into the human experience—especially in times of recovery. We feel deep humility to collaborate with local partners through a meaningful process.
For more information, visit www.bridge2belong.com.
LA Arts, the arts agency for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, has pursued a mission to engage and inspire a vibrant community through arts and culture since 1973. The agency works with governments, businesses, schools, and local arts and cultural organizations to create opportunities for community members across the generations to experience, learn, and participate in the arts. LA Arts organizes arts programs and initiatives, supports the work of local artists and arts organizations, and highlights the essential role the arts play in shaping an economically vital, socially integrated, and forward-looking future for its community.
Learn more at www.laarts.org.
Community Contributors
We extend our deepest gratitude to the following individuals and organizations for their contributions to this project:
Hand-painted & Drawn Imagery:
Guests and staff members from the Maine Resiliency Center
Youth workshop participants and staff from:
ArtVan
Tree Street Youth Center
Phoenix No Limits Karate summer camp
Students & staff from Bates College
Various community members from Lewiston, Auburn
& the surrounding region
Crocheted Forget-Me-Not Flowers:
Sculpture – Zoe Catterton
Visitor Mementos – Zoe Catterton, Lewiston Recreation participants
& crocheters from around the state of Maine
With Tireless Professional Support from the Following Individuals & Organizations:
Maine Resiliency Center – Meredith Stack, Joanna Stokinger, Elizabeth Rogers, Monica Linder, Danielle Parent
ArtVan – Jamie Silvestri
Tree Street Youth Center – Julia Sleeper-Whiting, Maxwell Bullett
Phoenix No Limits Karate – Donna Harris
Halcyon Yarn – Gretchen Jaeger
Lewiston Recreation Department – Stephanie Cote
Much Appreciated Additional Artistic Support from:
Marci Gagnon
Susan Camp
Stephen Harrington
Emily Puthoff
Kevin Callahan
Visioning Support from Our Community Organization Partners:
Maine MILL – Rachel Ferrante
Bates Harward Center – Darby Ray
Maine Inside Out – Noah Bragg, Chiara Liberatore
Generational Noor – Amran Osman
Gateway Community Services – Nathan Davis
Healthy Androscoggin – Lindsay Gannon
City of Lewiston – Divine Selengbe
Lisbon Arts Collective – Kelsi Vosburgh
Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce – Shanna Cox
And with Generous In-kind Donations from:
Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch
Franco Center
Home Depot
Marden’s
DaVinci’s Italian Eatery
Window Cleaners of Maine
Clockwise from top left, photos by: 1 & 5 Marie Sheffield; 2, 4 & 7 Traci Molloy; 3 & 6 Jen McDermott
Collective trauma occurs when a community or group experiences a shared event that disrupts not only individual lives but also the social fabric that holds the community together. It can result from acts of mass violence, war, displacement, or systemic oppression. Unlike personal trauma, which affects an individual, collective trauma lingers in the collective memory of a group, impacting relationships, culture, and a
shared sense of safety and belonging.
Effects on Those Most Directly Impacted – For survivors, victims’ families, and first responders, collective trauma often manifests as:
● Profound Grief & Loss – The pain of losing loved ones, community members, or a sense of personal safety.
● Disrupted Sense of Identity & Belonging – Feeling isolated or disconnected from one’s own life, work, or relationships.
● Hypervigilance & Anxiety – The world no longer feels safe, leading to heightened stress, fear, or avoidance of certain places and activities.
● Emotional & Physical Distress – Difficulty sleeping, recurring memories, deep sadness, or struggles with daily functioning.
The Ripple Effect: How Trauma Moves Through a Community – Even those not directly impacted feel the effects of collective trauma. It can show up in:
● A Fractured Social Fabric – A sense of division, tension, or loss of trust within the community.
● Heightened Fear & Uncertainty – People questioning their safety, their role in the community, or how to support one another.
● Compounded Stress in Service Providers – Educators, healthcare workers, and community leaders may experience burnout as they navigate their own emotions while trying to support others.
● Generational Impact – When trauma remains unaddressed, it can shape how future generations experience community, security, and belonging.
The Path to Collective Healing
While trauma has the power to isolate, healing has the power to reconnect. This is why projects like the Forget ME Not Project matter—not only as a way to process grief, but as an opportunity to rebuild trust, reclaim spaces for connection, and create something that honors loss while affirming life. Through shared storytelling, art, and intentional spaces for healing, we can begin to shift the weight of collective trauma toward collective renewal.
For more information, visit Bridge2belong.com.
Located at 168 Lisbon Street in Lewiston, the LA Arts Gallery presents six exhibitions throughout the year that reflect and honor the Twin Cities community. Exhibiting artists generally have ties to LA or to Maine.
With each show, LA Arts aims to bring individuals and groups together to strengthen our community through shared experiences and deeper cultural understanding.
Gallery Hours
If you’re interested in volunteering at the Gallery or want to learn more about the space and upcoming exhibitions, please send us a message using the form below.