I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me:
A Student-Curated Exhibition Working with the Frye Art Museums Permanent Collection
I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me was commissioned by the Frye Art Museum to celebrate the Museums fifty-eight year-old commitment to community outreach and art education. The exhibition reflects the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration in Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History, and it places that exhibition in the context of the needs of our community in Seattle.
Curated by students working with Arts Corps teaching artists, poet Roberto Ascalon and musician/producer Amos Miller, I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me offers unique insight into the Frye collection as experienced by youth. Over the course of several months, students participated in the behind-the-scenes operations of the Museum, working together with Frye Museum staff and Ascalon and Miller to select objects from the Fryes Permanent Collection and to determine an exhibition theme and title. Incorporating music, song, poetry, and spoken word, I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me includes the students responses to the artwork they chose for the exhibition.
Credits:
Frye Art Museum staff:
Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, director
T. J. Johnson, communications & media coordinator
Donna Kovalenko, collection manager / registrar
Shane Montgomery, exhibition designer
Laura OQuin, art educator
Rebecca Garrity-Putnam, deputy director communications
Jill Rullkoetter, senior deputy director
Deborah Sepulveda, manager of student and teacher programs
Arts Corps staff:
Roberto Ascalon, teaching artist
Lauren Atkinson, manager of faculty development
Tina LaPadula, education director
Amos Miller, MusicianCorps fellow
Elizabeth Whitford, executive director
Students:
Meagan James, Andrew Melnyk, Rob Melnyk, Lynda Morales, Vivi Perez, Paris Randall, Khatsini Simani, and Max Stockstill
Music:
Vivi Perez & Lynda Morales, American Dream
Khatsini Simani, What If
Rob Melnyk, Dreams of the Abyss
Meagan James, Malik’s Lullaby
Max Stockstill, Consciousness of Earth
Andrew Melnyk, Empty Blues
Paris Randall, The World
Assistance was provided by Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and the All Access Afterschool Program, especially Kevin Mock and Alberto Mejia II.
This project was funded by the Frye Foundation and the Grousemont Foundation with support from Arts Corps and the City of Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund.
Filmed by Jonathan Houser and Tony Tibbetts. Edited by Holly Houser.
