School of Art and Visual Studies Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, Miriam Kienle, along with Jennifer Sichel, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at the University of Louisville, have been awarded $25,000 from the Terra Foundation for American Art for their project “Queer Art | Queer Archives.”
“Queer Art | Queer Archives” is a two-day symposium with the goal of addressing the methodological challenges of doing queer archival labor in American art history. "Receiving support from the Terra Foundation allows us to realize our dream of hosting a vital symposium of nationally renowned scholars in Kentucky that will discuss the unique challenges of queer archival labor in American art history," explained Kienle. The Terra Foundation awarded 24 grants in June 2023, amounting to a total of over $1.8 million, to support projects that broaden the understandings of American art.
Historically, queer practices circumvented art institutions and its practitioners worked with media not sanctioned by museums. “Queer Art | Queer Archives” aims to generate new ways to analyze previously overlooked and systemically marginalized work. Specifically, discussions will be oriented toward developing interpretive frameworks that closely analyze the intersections of queerness with race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, and socioeconomic status.
From to the Terra Foundation website: “A groundbreaking collaboration between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, ‘Queer Art | Queer Archives’ will convene scholars and artists to investigate the theoretical stakes and methodological challenges of queer archival labor in American art history. Free and open to the public, this two-day symposium will be a significant resource for the vibrant queer communities of our region, which tend to be underserved and overlooked in favor of bigger, coastal communities. The symposium will generate new interpretive frameworks to analyze performances, zines, correspondence, and other ephemeral objects that chronicle queer histories. By expanding our definition of what counts as significant American art, ‘Queer Art | Queer Archives’ will promote diverse queer practices that speak to important personal, social, and political struggles and triumphs.”