Queer Art, Queer Archives

Queer Art, Queer Archives is a two-day symposium developed and co-hosted by Dr. Miriam Kienle (Associate Professor, University of Kentucky) and Dr. Jennifer Sichel (Assistant Professor, University of Louisville). The symposium brings together emerging and established scholars to investigate the theoretical stakes and methodological challenges of doing queer archival labor in American art history. Historically, queer practices circumvented institutions and experimented with media not sanctioned by museums. Scholars concerned with queer practices therefore 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. We have developed a preliminary roster of invited speakers based on the strength of their research and depth of their engagement with queer theory and archival methods. Proposed panel titles include: Telling Silences in Pre-Stonewall Art; Rogue Receptions of Queer Performance; Archiving AIDS Against Erasure; and Ephemeral Traces of Queer Attachment. We plan to promote the symposium widely to students, faculty, librarians and archivists at universities and institutions throughout the region, as well as to queer art and activist communities and the general public. We expect it will appeal to a large and diverse audience. The symposium will be an important public forum for discussing critical issues related to queer archival labor with the aim of sparking enduring conversations in the field of American art as well as among communities and institutions across Kentucky, where these dialogues are of vital importance.