Queer Art | Queer Archives Symposium

September 20-21, 2024

Co-hosted by the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, Queer Art | Queer Archives brings together experts specializing in queer art, theory, and archival methods for two days of presentations, discussions, and exhibitions. Historically, queer practices circumvented institutions and experimented with media not sanctioned by museums. Artists and art historians concerned with queer practices therefore often devise new strategies to scour archives for the ephemeral objects and documents that constitute much of this overlooked work. By convening scholars who conduct queer archival research, this symposium centers practices that have been systematically marginalized by narratives of American art history. Our aim is to generate new interpretive frameworks to analyze intersections of queerness with race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, and socioeconomic status. Free and open to the public, please mark your calendars and join us!

With support from: Terra Foundation for American Art, LexArts, University of Louisville's Hite Institute of Art and Design, University of Kentucky School of Art & Visual Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research. 

Day 1: Friday, September 20
University of Kentucky, Bolivar Art Gallery, 236 Bolivar Street

10-10:15am: Welcome Remarks

Miriam Kienle, Associate Professor, University of Kentucky
Jennifer Sichel, Assistant Professor, University of Louisville
Ruth Adams, Director, School of Art and Visual Studies, University of Kentucky

10:15am-12:15pm: Panel 1

Josh T Franco, “Hanging Out”: On Working Side by Side
Lex Lancaster, Archives in Ruins: Queer-Trans Methods for Working with What Remains
Jeannine Tang, Negative Space: Contemporary Art, Trans Life and Non-Performance

12:15-1:45pm: Lunch Break

Lunch

1:45-3:15pm: Panel 2

Andy Campbell, At Hand Histories: Poverty, Queerness, Archives
David J. Getsy, Street Addresses: Performing the Queer Life of the Street in early 1970s New York

3:15-3:45pm: Coffee Break

Coffee

3:45-4:30pm: Concluding Roundtable

Roundtable discussion

4:30-5:30pm: Gallery Reception

Reception in the Bolivar Art Gallery, 236 Bolivar Street

Day 2: Saturday, September 21
University of Louisville, Bingham Humanities Hassold Theatre, 2216 S 1st St

10:30am-12pm: Panel 3

Marika Cifor, Viral Transmission: AIDS Archives in Digital Cultures
Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez, On Sheyla Baykal (1944-1997)

12-1pm: Lunch Break

Lunch

1-3pm: Panel 4

C. Ondine Chavoya, Disco Clones and Teddy Sandoval’s Butch Gardens School of Art
Olivia K. Young, Black Queer Crip Embodiments in Indira Allegra’s Documenting Disability
Julia Bryan-Wilson, Conceição’s Queer Bugrinhos

3-3:30pm: Coffee Break

Coffee

3:30-4:15pm: Concluding Roundtable

Roundtable discussion

4:30-5:30pm: Gallery Reception

Reception in the Cressman Center for Visual Art, 100 East Main Street

Hosts:

• Miriam Kienle, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Kentucky
• Jennifer Sichel, Assistant Professor of Art History and Theory, University of Louisville

Speakers:

• Julia Bryan-Wilson, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
• Andy Campbell, Associate Professor of Critical Studies, University of Southern California
• Ondine Chavoya, Professor of Art History, University of Texas, Austin
• Marika Cifor, Assistant Professor of Information Science, University of Washington
• Josh Franco, Head of Collecting, Smithsonian Archives of American Art
• David Getsy, Professor of Art History, University of Virginia
• Lex Lancaster, Assistant Professor of Art History, The Cooper Union
• Jeannine Tang, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies, New York University
• Marcelo Gabriel Yañez, PhD Candidate in Art History, Stanford University
• Olivia K. Young, Assistant Professor of Art History, Rice University

Exhibiting Artists:
Letitia Quesenberry, Stephen Irwin, Robert Morgan, John Brooks, Borealis, Cierra Evans, Kat Smith, and Josh Porter.

Exhibitions in the Bolivar Art Gallery:

Exhibition in the Gatton Student Center:

August 15 - October 23
Queer Gear: Clothing from LGBTQ+ Kentuckians

Exhibition in the UK Art Museum: