Frye exhibitions break down barriers between art, viewers

When Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker became the Frye's new director a few months ago, she realized the upcoming "Tim Rollins K.O.S. (Kids of Survival)" exhibit offered the museum an opportunity to showcase community artists in Seattle and celebrate its commitment to outreach and art education.

Rollins, a South Bronx teacher, created K.O.S. 25 years ago. Combining humanities studies with studio experiences, he encourages disadvantaged young people to create significant works of art.

Over the years their paintings and sculptures have been in two Whitney Biennials and a Venice Biennale, and exhibited at prestigious museums in this country and abroad.

Now the traveling K.O.S. exhibit, first developed at New York's Skidmore College, is here. Accompanying it is "The Seattle Project," a collaboration involving people from three of the city's most innovative art programs as well as from all Frye departments.

It is a program about art and the community designed to break down barriers within the museum and between the museum and the public.

Eight students and recent graduates from various Seattle high schools worked with Arts Corps teachers in an after-school program at West Seattle's Youngstown Cultural Arts Center to create an exhibition of paintings from the Frye's permanent collection.

Mentored by Frye staff, they went behind the scenes at the museum, viewing the collection, choosing art works, and planning the show. "What kind of exhibit should we produce?" they asked. "The only limitation you have is your own imagination," was the answer.

They came up with "I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me," an exhibit of five paintings selected to explore the concept of isolation. The paintings depict one or two humans in circumstances that speak to loneliness, self reflection and even danger. Wall text and a sound track of spoken words and music express the students' responses to the paintings and offer visitors an opportunity to explore the impact of the art on their own psyches.

Path with Art, an organization that works with formerly homeless and other disadvantaged people, was another group involved. Their exhibition of 10 photographs, map collages and videos is called "Public Belongings." Here, the artists explore private identity and public space in Seattle.

Especially noteworthy are the photographs, whose quality is outstanding. I spoke to Kelly Ann Garland, whose soaring and unexpected portrayal of Seattle's main library commands attention.

Garland, an elegant, young, formerly homeless woman, told of her troubled childhood when "all it was about was survival. The part of me that was supposed to be creative just got shut down."

She found out about Path with Art at the YMCA where she now lives. That organization "allowed me to discover the person inside," she said. Her photo speaks to the released creative soul.

The Center School Graphic Design/CTE students created four teen-oriented products for the gift shop, under the direction of teacher Wyn Pottinger-Levy and the museum's store manager, Karla Glanzman.

There are handsome guitar picks and art patches imprinted with images taken from works in the Frye's founding collection. The patches can be ironed or sewn onto book bags, jeans or other items.

There are also hand-screened T-shirts and a knitting kit with an instructional video for making a cellphone or iPod holder.

As student Zoë Brozman said, "The experience of working with deadlines and envisioning the whole process from ideas through production was invaluable."

Birnie Danzker believes that supporting and celebrating the artistic process, and doing it collaboratively, enriches both the Frye and the community. It's something the founders would champion.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@earthlink.net