OkayAfrica – Having grown up in Ethiopia all his life, Fitsum Shebeshe had never known what it was like to travel outside of the conservative Christian town in Addis Ababa where he was born. When he went outside the country for the first time, on a visit to Mozambique for an informal arts training program, his eyes were opened to brand new experiences and he wanted to learn more about the possibilities that were waiting for him beyond the borders of his home country, and, indeed, outside of Africa. While working as an assistant curator at the National Museum of Ethiopia, he applied to arts school in the US. Upon acceptance, he was given a scholarship to complete his Masters of Fine Arts in Curatorial Practice at Maryland Institute College of Art.
This set in motion the foundation for Shebeshe to curate an exhibition called ‘States of Becoming,’ produced by Independent Curators International, and currently on show at The Africa Center in Harlem, New York. A space for Shebeshe to reflect on and interrogate the myriad experiences, thoughts and feelings that go along with being an African in the US, he gathered together 17 artists to explore how relocation, resettling, and assimilation informed the creation of their identities within the contemporary African diaspora. Read more.