Kids Of Survival
January 29, 2010This blog has been fairly one-dimensional with just art and music so we’re gonna add another feature. Starting today, we will be writing about events at local galleries and museums and other art related happenings in and around the city.
The South Bronx in the early 1980’s was a bad place if you were “learning disabled, emotionally handicapped, truant, or otherwise at risk,” according to Tim Rollins. Rollins, an artist and teacher, started the Art and Knowledge Workshop in 1982 to help disenfranchised youth aged 16 to 19. Rollins would read to the teens and they would draw and create art. Eventually Rollins and the youth began to collaborate in their art and became known as Tim Rollins and the Kids of Survival (K.O.S.). Rollins said ”What we’re doing changes people’s conception about who can make art, how art is made, who can learn and what’s possible, because a lot of these kids had been written off by the school system. This is our revenge.” Rollins transformed the South Bronx and gave many teens the opportunity to express themselves.
Right now, Seattle’s own Frye Art Museum is featuring much of Rollins and K.O.S.’s work. Much of the art focuses on the injustices of the public school system and translating literary classics into modern works of art. The exhibition runs through May 31st. Admission and parking are free so there’s no reason for you not to go!
