The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida featured LGBTQ+ UF students in an installation that opened Thursday, marking a first for the museum.
The installation featured art in a plethora of mediums, ranging from linocut prints to AI-generated art pieces. Some art pieces dealt with themes of queer identity, while others displayed discontent with new Florida laws like the one critics termed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Riley Towbin, the director of the UF Student Government LGBTQ+ Affairs Cabinet, reached out to the museum to start the collaboration.
“One of my really close friends is an intern at the Harn, so she’s always raving about the museum nights,” she said. “I really wanted to do something art-related, so I reached out to a few exhibits on campus … and I also reached out to the Harn and they’ve been amazing.”
Towbin wanted this installation to “provide people a sense of community and a sense of being able to relate to other people” and is happy that the installation will be available for a month. She thought it was “really powerful in a way that like we’re[queer students] not being silenced, we’re continuing to express ourselves in whatever way possible.”
Paige Willis, the Harn’s community engagement and museum interpretation manager, thought the installation “would be a great opportunity to highlight queer artists here at UF and to connect it to museum nights for a reception.”
“A museum is a powerful place,” she said. “We have an obligation to our community to offer access and to offer space to highlight marginalized communities, so I think hosting this installation really demonstrates we are allies as a museum and that we want to support our emerging and very established queer artists.”
Willis wants this installation to be a continued effort for the museum.
“I’m hoping that this generates future partnerships and this can maybe be reoccurring event, not just a one time,” she said.
Brooke Hull, a graduate student, used linocut prints for their artwork which depicts identities that the artist holds dear to them.
“I just wanted to have some fun and explore something that would be really celebratory of queer identity and also center fat identity among queer identity,” says Hull about how the artwork came to be.
Hull expressed that being transgender, fat and queer creates an intersectional experience for them, and wanted to portray that with their artwork.
Gi Colby, artist and Harn Museum volunteer, used Prismacolor colored pencils to make an art piece in response to her hometown’s response to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“A lot of my school and my community (in Weston) was really affected by the passage of this bill. In fact, my sister who was the president of GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) had to close down GSA because of the bill,” she said. “I just wanted to call to attention how it feels to be oppressed every day.”
Maddey Holt, a student dancer, was asked to perform a dance for this installation a couple of days before the event and she hopped on the opportunity to do so.
“I love dance and I love to take any opportunity I can to show my joy for it and to share that with people,” she said.
Holt centered her dance around the struggles she faced while in the LGBTQ+ community and the moment while being in the community where she felt seen by others.
Childie D’aout, a UF student, came out to the installation to see the artwork displayed by the queer community.
“I am gay and I like art so I decided to come,” D’aout said.
D’aout especially enjoyed the artworks that were inspired by several songs by alternative artist Mitsuki Miyawaki, better known as Mitski, because of the artistic choices made by the artist in the use of colors and details.