Queer the Path

Queer the Path: LGBTQ+ Art for and by Us was our second annual public art exhibition featuring collaborative artworks created by members of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project,Project participants, many of whom have never before considered themselves to be artists, worked together in small intergenerational groups to create art that “queers” the path of finding and building an LGBTQ+ community. Art-making became a tool for dialogue – both between the artists and the public who view it. This work is vital amid intense political backlash against the lives of LGBTQ+ people. Refusing to be defined by such backlash, the artists and their work lift up how we define and redefine ourselves and our community.

Queer the Path, both in its final form and as a process, showcases how to clear the path for future opportunities for conversations between generations of LGBTQ+ people because for us, queer is the path.

Our Exhibition opened on Friday, April 26, 2024, at the Center on Addison. Over 250 people attended and engaged with art, the artists, and each other. The public had the opportunity to listen to storytellers perform short personal stories that they developed during the Fall 2023 semester. Opening night buzzed with conversation, introductions, laughter and tender moments. In the week after the opening, participants from the Dialogue Project including Molly Fulop, Marti Smith, and Dwight Okita gave gallery tours of the exhibition for friends, school tour groups, and members of our larger Chicago community as they came to see our work.

Our exhibition was featured in the Windy City Times before and after the opening reception!