a message to myself from the past

My memory of the Freedman Gallery   by Beth Krumholz

I started to hang out at the Freedman Gallery when I was an artsy teen living up the street,

in Hampden Heights. My mother had been a devoted community member active on the Fine Arts Commission for years. I liked the director and the artists. At the time Marilyn Zeitlin was running things. She was brilliant, dynamic, inspiring and infectious. She gave me my first art history book. Exhibiting artists would arrive from New York and sleep over at our house. I would ride the bus into NYC with them and see their studios.

It was the beginning of having meaningful and radical dialogues about art, creativity, expression, and ideas. I began an internship there. We hosted salons at our house. I developed relationships that I have maintained till this day and that steered the course of my life. It was the 1970’s. Graphic art was cut and paste. I was trying to figure something out. I was figuring out how art figured into my life and the Freedman Gallery gave me a place and a way to do that.

I did have all the art books that I poured over in the house I grew up in. I did have trips to New York City and Philadelphia. But this was in my back yard. I would ride my bike down many hills and arrive there.

The lectures and receptions were a hotbed of discourse and my curiosity was tapped. I remember conversations with Tom Watcke and Gary Adlestein. And of course Harry Koursaros. Marilyn’s office was upstairs in the White Chapel. The light would stream in. We would have miso soup and pita sandwiches and make the exhibition announcements old school style.

The exhibitions that I remember most dearly were small is beautiful which included works by Laurie Anderson and Dotty Attie. And Messages, where I had my first introduction to Joseph Beuys and Francesc Torres. And of course The Great Pyramid Show, where at the age of 16 I was entrusted with giving my first lecture and gallery tour.

Something big was happening there. And for me personally, it had something to do with what I did next, my pursuits and passions. After art school and my graduate degrees and stints in museums on both coasts, I returned to Albright and work at the Center for the Arts today creating public outreach programs that build on the exhibitions and other points of interest on the campus as well.

( I made the announcements pasted above- with manual cut and paste graphic design. The other announcement shows that I cut my teeth as a teen lecturing in the gallery. )