Coexisting with COVID-19: Art in the Time of Illness

Priya Frank is the Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Seattle Art Museum where her focus is on organizational development, program curation, and racial equity related initiatives across the institution. Previous work at LUCID Lounge, UW Bothell, UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and the Meany Hall for the Performing Arts have influenced her passion and heart for this work. Priya is co-chair of the Seattle Arts Commission, and is a graduate of Leadership Tomorrow’s class of 2015. She was named one of 2018’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine, and made the Puget Sound Business Journal’s top 40 under 40 list in 2019. Priya holds a B.A. in Communications and American Ethnic Studies from University of Washington Seattle and an M.A. in Cultural Studies from University of Washington Bothell, where she was named 2020 Alumnae of the Year. She is also a certified Zumba instructor who loves to dance, travel, and make chalk art murals.

The Head of Directing and Playwriting at the University of Washington’s School of Drama, Valerie also serves as the Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, an African American theatre lab. She has worked with theatres across the country including: The Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, New York Theatre Workshop, among others. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for Directors, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Gielgud Directing Fellowship, Theatre Puget Sound’s Gregory Fall Award for Sustained Achievement, Seattle Times’ 13 Most Influential Citizens of the last decade, the Seattle Stranger Genius Award in Performance and the Crosscut Courage Award for Culture.