SmithsonianPride images

My piece at the Smithsonian Artists at Work exhibition. #smithsonianpride #fierce photos at the breakfast reception.

A reminder to join us on Saturday August 12th at the Smithsonian Zoo in D.C. We'll spend the day getting a special custom tour of the Zoo grounds with one of the Smithsonian staff. FREE! Pre-registration and parent or guardian consent required. Scan the QR code on the attached flyer, or follow the link in bio. #zoo #zootrip #glsenmd #SmithsonianPride

Have you signed up for our Zoo Trip yet??!? On Saturday August 12th from 11-5 we will be at the Smithsonian Zoo in D.C. We'll spend the day getting a special custom tour of the Zoo grounds with one of the Smithsonian staff. FREE! Pre-registration and parent or guardian consent required. Scan the QR code on the attached flyer, or follow the link: https://online.forms.app/glsenmaryland/field-trip-permission-form #zoo #zootrip #glsenmd #SmithsonianPride

Greetings from Washington D.C . . . . . . . . . . #washingtondc #nationalmall #washington #lincoln #lincolnmemorial #worldwar2memorial #visitdc #smithsonianpride #smithsoian #smithsoniancastle #travel #dc #tourist #abrahamlincoln #usa

Happy last day of Pride Month! Today's highlight: Chitra Ganesh 🌈 ✨ Chitra Ganesh (1975 - ) is an multimedia artist in Brooklyn, New York. Ganesh examines feminine and queer representation in mythology and pop culture through media including digital collage, comics, sculpture, and murals. In the Archives of American Art’s Pandemic Oral History Project, we spoke with various artists about how the COVID pandemic has affected their lives and their work. In her 2020 interview, Ganesh speaks of a commissioned mural she created that explores how LGBTQ+ and feminine identities play into the current moment of the pandemic. To view the full transcript for this interview, visit the link in bio. #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQArtists #WomenArtists Alt Text: White text on blue background with AAA logo in bottom left corner. Text reads: “[My mural installation is] going to start as a, sort of, a protest and then become more like a party… among the figures that are populating that part of that passage of the work are going to be all the trans and gender-nonconforming people that were murdered this year. So that, um, that was some a way in which I think the pandemic actually shaped the work in a way that I wouldn’t have expected.” –Chitra Ganesh. Oral history interview, 2020.

Born in Mexico City, Carlos Almaraz soon moved with his family to the United States, settling eventually in East Los Angeles. He studied at California State College at Los Angeles, and spent a few years in New York before returning to California. In the 1970s he became involved with César Chávez’s farm workers’ movement, Luis Valdez’s Teatro Campesino, and Mechanicano, a cooperative gallery in East Lost Angeles. Almaraz was one of the founding members of the Chicano art collective Los Four, whose other members included Gilbert “Magu” Luján, Roberto de la Rocha, and Frank Romero. A later shift to expressionistic painting and graphics brought Almaraz to national recognition. By the 1980s, his non-narrative images of Los Angeles addressed both his cultural affiliations and sense of isolation with living with AIDS. This painting, inspired by velvet paintings sold on the U.S.-Mexico border, represents urban Los Angeles exploding with sensuous colors and populated by shadows suggestive of Almaraz’s lonely alter egos. Image: Carlos Almaraz, “Night Magic (Blue Jester),” 1988, oil on canvas #SmithsonianPride #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum

A catalyst for pride. The riots that brought about the Gay Liberation Front and the start of the modern LGBTQ+ movement. It was the morning of June 28, 1969 and the Stonewall Inn was electric. Drinks were flowing, music was blasting and everybody was moving to the beat. This was one of the few – if not only – gay bars left that allowed dancing. That positive energy was abruptly interrupted when NYPD officers conducted a surprise raid on the Stonewall inn. Armed with a warrant, officers entered the club, found bootlegged alcohol and, with it, an excuse to begin arresting employees and patrons found to be violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute. Tired of discrimination, bigotry and police harassment, many bar patrons didn’t leave – they organized. While watching their friends be aggressively manhandled during arrest, stones began to fly from the crowd. Minutes later, a full-fledged riot broke out. The NYPD officers were forced to barricade themselves inside the bar, which was then set ablaze by the demonstrators. The NYFD and riot squad were eventually able to disperse the crowd, rescue the officers inside Stonewall and put out the fire… but it was too late. The spark had ignited a raging inferno that spread within the LGBTQ+ community, and would lead to momentous change. . . . . . . . #todayinhistory #smithsonianpride #pridemonth #pridehistory #LGBTQ #pride #stonewall #history

Artist Christina Quarles paints at a scale determined by her own arm span. She stretches, twists, compresses, and contorts her subjects to fit inside the frame of her large canvases, creating tangles of bodies that blur into swirls of movement. Through her work, Quarles explores the dynamic experience of living within a body rather than how it is perceived from the outside, reflecting on the paradox that we are all simultaneously bounded and boundless. Come closer and mentally untangle Christina Quarles's "Held Fast and Let Go Likewise" (2020) in the current exhibition "Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection." --- Image credit: Christina Quarles, "Held Fast and Let Go Likewise," 2020. Acrylic on canvas. Museum purchase with funds provided by The Basil Alkazzi Purchase Fund, 2020. [Image description: Stretched bodies tangled up at the center of a painting, blending into a swirl of movement with three stylized faces and many limbs sticking out. The bodies are painted in oranges and reds with muted grays. The background resembles a room with an exposed canvas and a royal blue wall, and a blue and green floor.] #SmithsonianPride

Today marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the start of the modern LGBTQ+ Rights Movement. Black LGBTQ+ trailblazers have significantly contributed to advancing marginalized communities' civil and human rights worldwide. Follow the link in our bio to explore more LGBTQ+ stories on our website. #OnThisDay #SmithsonianPride 📸 Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Ron Simmons, © Ron Simmons

WITNESSES: Against Our Vanishing was an exhibition at Artists Space, open from November 1989 to January 1990. This exhibition, as described in the exhibition catalog, told the story of artists “living and working together on Manhattan’s Lower East Side over a period of time during which the AIDS epidemic began to surface and destroy that particular community of artists. . . . The work of the artists in this exhibition is a kind of testimony of survival, of keeping the faith despite the insidious nature of the disease and the prejudice surrounding it.” Artists featured in the exhibition include David Armstrong, Dorit Cypis, Clarence Elie-Rivera, Darrel Ellis, Margo Pelletier, David Wojnarowicz, and more. To view the full catalog with artists statements and photos of the featured artwork, held at the Archives of American Art, visit the link in bio. 📸: Nan Goldin. Witnesses: against our vanishing, 1989. Lucy R. Lippard papers, 1930s-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQArtists

Join us on Saturday August 12th at the Smithsonian Zoo in D.C. We'll spend the day getting a special custom tour of the Zoo grounds with one of the Smithsonian staff. FREE! Pre-registration and parent or guardian consent required. Scan the QR code on the attached flyer, or click link in bio. #zoo #zootrip #glsenmd #SmithsonianPride

Meet political cartoonist and AIDS activist of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, Danny Sotomayor. As the first nationally syndicated and openly gay political cartoonist, Sotomayor used his platform to speak out against government inaction on the AIDS health crisis. He was also the co-founder of ACT-UP Chicago, an AIDS awareness activist group. Sotomayor died in 1992 at the age of 33 from complications due to AIDS. His illustrated portrait by Rafael López is featured in our first exhibition ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States. Visit us in person at @amhistorymuseum or online at https://s.si.edu/presente (Link available in our bio) ▫️ El caricaturista político y activista contra el sida de raíces puertorriqueñas y mexicanas, Danny Sotomayor, fue el primer caricaturista político nacional abiertamente gay y usó su plataforma para denunciar la falta de acción del gobierno durante la crisis del sida. Fue cofundador de ACT-UP Chicago, un grupo activista para la concientización sobre esta enfermedad. Murió en 1992 de 33 años, por complicaciones del sida. Su retrato ilustrado por el artista Rafael López esta en nuestra primera exposición ¡Presente! una historia latina de los Estados Unidos en el Museo Nacional de Historia Americana. Visítanos en persona o en línea en https://s.si.edu/presente_esp. #SmithsonianPride #AmericanLatinoMuseum #Pride #PrideMonth

#SmithsonianPride Biologist Ruth Gates (1962-2018) dedicated her studies to coral reef conservation. In the face of ocean warming, pollution and acidification, Gates advocated for #coral reef protection in the form of "super corals." Super corals are corals that could be trained to withstand harsh conditions and preserve the health of their ecosystems. She conducted her research at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (@himb_soest) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (@uhmanoanews) and founded the Gates Coral Lab, where the continuation of her research preserves her legacy. Gates was equally committed to public outreach about her research. She appeared in the 2017 documentary “Chasing Coral,” a Netflix series about scientists around the world studying and protecting coral reefs. She also appeared in a short documentary from Vice about super corals. Part of her vision to save coral reefs included encouraging global collaboration to implement conservation techniques. She is fondly remembered for her passion for corals by her colleagues, and for her charisma by people like her wife, Robin Burton-Gates. Photo: Hollie Putnam

In this quiet scene from a #Pride weekend, Sylvia Rivera sits between her partner Julia Murray (right) and fellow activist Christina Hayworth. Luis Carle took this photo, now in @smithsoniannpg, at the Saturday Rally before New York’s Gay Pride Parade in 2000. Rivera participated in the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969, a key moment in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. But she faced racism and discrimination as a Latina transgender woman from the mostly white cisgender male leadership of the Gay Activist Alliance that she campaigned with. With Marsha P. Johnson, she started an organization for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness in New York City, with a focus on supporting people of color. #SmithsonianPride 📸: © Luis Carle

Painter Romaine Brooks and writer Natalie Barney were romantic partners for over 50 years. 🌈 So well-known was their relationship, correspondences with others would include messages relayed from the other. They would also feature in each others’ artworks--Brooks painted Barney, and Barney would write poetry about her “page-clothed Rosalind.” To learn more about their relationship, visit the papers of Romaine Brooks at link in bio. #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQArtists #WomenArtists #poetry #ArchivesOfAmericanArt 📷 1 and 2: Marino, Nicky, 1964-1968 Romaine Brooks papers, 1910-1973. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. 📷3: Poems and Poemes Autres Alliances, by Natalie Barney, 1920. Romaine Brooks papers, 1910-1973. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Techno and house are forms of electronic dance music that emerged primarily out of Chicago and Detroit during the mid to late 1980s. Chicago radio and club DJs began producing new versions of dance songs using drum machines and synthesizers. This rhythmically charged, largely underground music was initially produced within the subcultures of Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ urban communities. Rejecting the legacy of traditional R&B, house, and techno rely on distinctly technological approaches to making music. #BlackMusicMonth #APeoplesGroove #SmithsonianPride 📸 State to State Ball, Harlem, NY, 1998. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Gerard Gaskin

Forty years ago this week, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she took off on a space shuttle mission on June 18, 1983. Ride was the first known LGBTQ+ astronaut, as well as an advocate for STEM education. Shuttle astronauts wore this type of flight jacket to work and public appearances. The nametag identifies the STS-7 mission on which Ride earned her astronaut wings, while the patch across the chest indicates that she was one of 35 astronauts selected in 1978 as the first group chosen for the space shuttle program. The right shoulder has the patch for her other mission, STS-41G in 1984. Ride’s partner Tam O’Shaughnessy donated the jacket to our @airandspacemuseum. #PrideMonth #SmithsonianPride

Native Pride Extravaganza: June 23, 2023, 7 – 9 PM This year’s NYC Pride theme is “Strength in Solidarity.” To celebrate, the museum is presenting an evening of dynamic and fun performances that showcase the rich diversity of the Indigenous LGBTQIA+ community. https://s.si.edu/42LysSv #SmithsonianPride #smithsonianmuseumofnaturalhistory

Happy Father’s Day! ☀️ Artist Joey Terrill reflects on his important personal and artistic relationship with his father in his 2017 oral history interview. If you are interested in reading the full transcript of Joey Terrill’s oral history, from his upbringing, to his experience in working-class Chicano activism, to his memories of the AIDS crisis, and how all of this influences his art and his life, please visit the link in bio. #FathersDay #HappyFathersDay #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQArtists #LatinoArtists #OralHistory Alt Text: White text on blue background, with AAA logo in bottom left corner. The quote reads: "I like to say that my dad gave me art… He made some of the furniture in our home, which was all sort of '50s modern. And also, ironwork chairs that, again, were kind of '50s modern. And he worked out of our garage, and I used to watch him, and I used to help him. So, you know, I just thought that that's what everybody did, that you always made art and stuff."

Earrings, 1948. Brass. Art Smith (American; 1923–1982). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. “I see jewelry as bold—as an integral part of the face, arm, or body. It should be incomplete until it is on, related to the body.” — Art Smith Cuban-born, Brooklyn-raised Art Smith was a major modernist jeweler of the mid-twentieth century. Despite being subject to attacks and discrimination based on the fact that he was gay and Afro-Caribbean, Smith made an incredibly contribution to jewelry design—or "wearable art" as he called it. His pieces take inspiration from modern sculpture, dance, and jazz, creating asymmetrical forms and using positive and negative space to make dramatic compositions. For Smith, jewelry was an incomplete sculptural expression until it was related to the body. #PrideMonth #SmithsonianPride #ArtSmith @americanart

Necklace, 1948. Brass. Art Smith (American; 1923–1982). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. “I see jewelry as bold—as an integral part of the face, arm, or body. It should be incomplete until it is on, related to the body.” — Art Smith Cuban-born, Brooklyn-raised Art Smith was a major modernist jeweler of the mid-twentieth century. Despite being subject to attacks and discrimination based on the fact that he was gay and Afro-Caribbean, Smith made an incredibly contribution to jewelry design—or "wearable art" as he in called it. His pieces take inspiration from modern sculpture, dance, and jazz, creating asymmetrical forms and using positive and negative space to make dramatic compositions. For Smith, jewelry was an incomplete sculptural expression until it was related to the body. #PrideMonth #SmithsonianPride #ArtSmith #CooperHewitt @amfedarts

“When I made the decision that I wanted to have a career as an artist, the first thing I wanted to accomplish was to force Native American aesthetic histories into the conversation with other aesthetic histories globally.... That's what I've worked really hard for, hopefully to expand the conversation to be more inclusive, to include people like myself, but also people completely unlike myself as well." —Jeffrey Gibson Gibson's (Mississippi Band of Choctaw/Cherokee) work has long defied common expectations of Native American art in both its form and content. The artist's work blends Native American iconography and materials like those found in powwow regalia such as beads and jingles with inspiration from poets and music of 1990s rave and club culture. His work has been called Indigenous Futurism as it also questions the results of capitalism, calls for environmental sustainability, and demands 2SLGBTQIA+ visibility. Gibson's art practice began with painting, and has since led him to create sculptures, film and video, installations, and performance art. Our Washington, DC museum has exhibited Gibson's work in "Vantage Point" (2010), and at our New York City museum in "Off the Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination" (2007) and "Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting" (2019–2021). In 2019, Gibson was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and his work is in numerous museum and private collections. __ Jeffrey Gibson (enrolled citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee, b. 1972). Infinite Anomaly #1, 2003. New York, New York. 26/5659. #SmithsonianPRIDE #2SLGBTQIA #IndigenousArtists

This is a basket made by Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy, b. 1988): “Apikcilu Binds the Sun,” 2018. A basket weaver from the age of four, Neptune earned the title of master basket maker at age twenty, using ash and sweetgrass that they harvest themselves. Using their craft to weave Wabanaki teachings into art, they were awarded the United States Artist fellowship for basketmaking in 2021, and as a member of their local school board, they were the first openly transgender elected official and the first two-spirit person to run for any office in the state of Maine. Neptune is one of six Native American or Alaska Native artists on display in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s tenth Renwick Invitational, titled “Sharing Honors and Burdens,” highlighting mid-career and emerging Indigenous artists reflecting on tradition while pushing the boundaries of their crafts. The exhibition includes glass artist and basket weaver Joe Feddersen’s visuals of urban environments; Lily Hope’s and Ursala Hudson’s weavings influenced by spirituality and graphic design; Erica Lord’s multimedia work on cultural identity; Geo Neptune’s basketry; and Maggie Thompson’s textile work involving 3D printing and photography. 
This exhibition is on view through March 31, 2024. #Smithsonian #SmithsonianPRIDE #Pride #RenwickGallery #IndigenousArtists #2SLGBTQ #ArtDesk #ReadArtDesk [Photo: Geo Neptune, Apikcilu Binds the Sun, 2018, ash and sweetgrass with commercial dye, acrylic ink, and 24-karat gold-plated beads, 16 1/2 × diam. 9 in., Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, Museum purchase, The Philip Conway Beam Endowment Fund. Photo by Luc Demers.]

Stop and smell the cherries with the first commercially produced scratch and sniff wallpaper, "Cherry Forever," in our @cooperhewitt's collection. It was made with fragrance oils that are microencapsulated and printed on the wallpaper surface—you release the scent by scratching the cherries. Designed by Michael Angelo and produced by Flavor Paper, it was part of “The Fruit Cocktail” collection of scratch and sniff wallpapers in 2007, which included flavors B-A-N-A-N-A-S!, and Tutti Frutti. A portion of the proceeds from the collection were donated to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. #PrideMonth #SmithsonianPride

We’re flying #PRIDE colors proudly in honor of our LGBTQ+ artists and dedicated staff at SAAM and the National Portrait Gallery. Thank you for helping us tell the many vibrant stories of American art and portraiture. Join us to celebrate #SmithsonianPride with programs and collections at the link in our bio.

Jerry Dreva (1945-1997) was an artist, performer, and LGBTQ+ rights activist from the Milwaukee area who spent most of his career in Los Angeles. Dreva worked primarily in mail art and did commission work for publications in the United States and abroad. Dreva, along with Robert Lambert, founded the conceptual rock group, Le Petites Bon-Bons, in the early 1970s. It was group that never performed but became popular among rock artists and the public through mail art publicity. Dreva also championed the emerging LGBTQ+ movement through his mail art and Le Petites Bon-Bons. The finding aid to Jerry Dreva papers, 1964-1984, and select digitized items are available at the link in bio. #SmithsonianPride #LatinoArtists #LGBTQArtists 📷 1: Jerry Dreva ca. 1977. Jerry Dreva papers, 1964-1984. 📷 2: "Bonbon Returns: Art meets Punk" Mail Art, 1978. Jerry Dreva papers, 1964-1984. 📷 3: "The Year of the Punk: or Walk on the Wild Side" Mail Art ca. 1977. Jerry Dreva papers, 1964-1984. 📷 4: Bon Bons Record, undated. Jerry Dreva papers, 1964-1984.

Sunil Gupta is an Indian-born photographer, educator, and curator based in London, England. His projects focus on queer identity, migration, and race. In 2017, Gupta participated in a wide-ranging oral history interview, conducted by Theodore Kerr, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. #SunilGupta #EveryMonthIsPrideMonth #LGBTQPrideMonth #LGBTQ+ #LGBTQArtists #PrideMonth #SmithsonianPride #OralHistory Alt text: A text box with a blue background and white text with the following quote. A text box with a blue background and white text with the following quote: "Yeah, I've never been-I'm not somebody who was kind of unsure or something. I don't know why. It just never occurred to me. maybe if things happened differently. Because in India, what would have happened is that they would have had a wife and a kid. So Montreal and gay liberation gave me an opportunity to just be gay. So I just took it. My parents were, like, scandalized. But I did it." -Sunil Gupta, oral history interview, 2017. The Archives of American Art's logo is in the bottom left corner.

At Frost Science, we are joining the Smithsonian in commemorating National Pride Month and celebrating the scientific contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community. We recognize the impact they've made through their inspirational ideas and dynamic discoveries. Happy Pride from Frost Science! #SmithsonianPride @smithsonianaffiliates #FrostScience ………….………….………….…………. #FrostScienceMuseum #PrideMonth #Pride2023 #MiamiPride #MiamiBeachPride #lgbtqiaplus #lgbtqia #pride🌈

From @nmaahc “Black LGBTQ+ Americans have made enormous contributions to global history and culture. From literature and the performing arts to religion, politics, and activism, members of Black LGBTQ+ communities have defined understandings of what it means to be American.” #SmithsonianPride #pride🌈 In photo: Octavia and Danielle, Revlon Ball, New York City, 1997 by Gerard Gaskin

The Smithsonian Channel Film Screenings series continues at The Durham Museum in June with three opportunities to see “Smithsonian Time Capsule: Beyond Stonewall” this weekend (June 3-4). The Stonewall riots in 1969 sparked a new attitude and activism around LGBTQ rights. Half a century later, revisit the historic moment that began a movement and explore objects from the Smithsonian Institute that tells stories of the gay experience in America. Examine a donation can from America’s first gay pride march and notes written to Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. The film includes footage from Lilli Vincenz’s films “Gay and Proud” and “The Second Largest Minority.” 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: • Saturday, June 3 (11AM & 2PM) • Sunday, June 4 (1PM) Films last approximately one hour and are shown in the Stanley and Dorothy Truhlsen Lecture Hall on the lower level of the museum. The screening is free for museum members and is included in regular museum admission for non-members. #SmithsonianPride #JunePrideMonth #SmithsonianChannelFilmScreenings

Black LGBTQ+ Americans have made enormous contributions to global history and culture. From literature and the performing arts to religion, politics, and activism, members of Black LGBTQ+ communities have defined a deepened understanding of what it means to be American. Dedicated to being a resource for dialog and shared knowledge, our museum collects, preserves, and provides access to objects that reveal the significant histories of LGBTQ+ communities. Follow the link in our bio to explore our online portal that gives greater access to stories we want to share with the world. #SmithsonianPride #PrideMonth 📸 Octavia St. Laurent and Danielle Revlon competing against one another in the Femme Queen Realness category of the 1997 Revlon Ball in Manhattan, NY, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Gerard Gaskin

Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett Rainey (1886-1939) captivated audiences with her distinctive voice and dynamic stage presence. Known as “Ma” as well as “The Mother of Blues,” Rainey’s musical legacy has been acknowledged through her inductions into the Blue Foundation Blues Hall of Fame (1983), Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame (1990), and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (1992) as well as “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” – a 1982 play by August Wilson and a 2020 Academy award-winning film. She became one of the first Black female musicians to record an album after signing with Paramount Records in 1923 and went on to record nearly 100 popular records in a five year span, bringing blues music to a national audience. She also wrote many of her own songs, which was unique for vocalists of the time. Rainey, who separated from her husband and fellow performer after several years of marriage, was known to have had relationships with both men and women. The iconic performer was honored with this postage stamp, issued in 1994 as part of the Legends of American Music Stamp Series. #SmithsonianPride ©U.S. Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Happy #Pride! 🏳️‍🌈 Elton Hercules John is one of the biggest musical icons of the 20th century. Born in Pinner, England, he was gifted from a young age. ⁣ ⁣ He found success with his blend of eccentric styles and musical influences. Throughout his career, he topped charts with hits like “Tiny Dancer” (1972), “Rocket Man” (1972), and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (1973). 🎶⁣ ⁣ In 1994, Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and four years later he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.⁣ ⁣ This month we’re highlighting members of the LGBTQ+ community from within our portrait collection. Stay tuned for more stories of their legacies and contributions to American culture. #SmithsonianPride

Today marks the start of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month! IHS will be celebrating all June with photos from our collections, blog posts, and more! Pictured here are two attendees at Indy Pride in 1996. Share your favorite Pride memory with us! #PrideMonth #IndyPride #SmithsonianPride

Through their artwork, L. J. Roberts, who learned to stitch from their grandmother as a child, uses assumptions about knitting as feminine and amateur art to challenge the very notion of essentialized gender. In “The Queer Houses of Brooklyn in the Three Towns of Breukelen, Boswyck, and Midwout in the 41st Year of the Stonewall Era,” L.J. Roberts presents a knitted and sewn map of queer community building in Brooklyn, New York. The map, based on a drawing by Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, was made in honor of Brooklyn’s 2010 Queer House Field Day, a day of playful competitions and costumes among the queer houses. These collective homes were created by queer people to create safe living spaces, form chosen families, and lay foundations for political activism. #SmithsonianPride Images 1: L.J. Roberts, “The Queer Houses of Brooklyn in the Three Towns of Breukelen, Boswyck, and Midwout during the 41st Year of the Stonewall Era (based on a 2010 drawing by Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky with 24 illustrations by Buzz Slutzky on printed pin-back buttons),” 2011, poly-fill, acrylic, rayon, Lurex, wool, polyester, cotton, lamé, sequins, and blended fabrics with printed pin-back buttons, 138 x 114 x 108 in. (350.5 x 289.6 x 274.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elaine Reuben, 2012.43, © 2011, L.J. Roberts 2, 3: details of L.J. Roberts, “The Queer Houses of Brooklyn in the Three Towns of Breukelen, Boswyck, and Midwout during the 41st Year of the Stonewall Era (based on a 2010 drawing by Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky with 24 illustrations by Buzz Slutzky on printed pin-back buttons),” 2011

Kick off Pride Month with MOHAI TONIGHT for Free First Thursday! From 5–8pm, enjoy FREE admission to our permanent exhibits, learn how to Vogue with Ladie Chablis (@ladiechablis), watch virtual and onsite screenings of queer films from Three Dollar Bill Cinema, contribute to a community art project on queer legacies, and snap a few pictures in our photo booth. Advance Online Tickets are not required. Voguing lesson spots are limited and on a first come, first serve basis. Learn more at the link in bio. #SmithsonianPride

We're celebrating #SmithsonianPride with our colleagues across the @Smithsonian! Bayard Rustin (one of 27 inspiring African American men featured in our #MenOfChange exhibition) once wrote, “The only weapon we have is our bodies.” Rustin’s life was not only a testament to the non-violent weaponization of his own body, it was a call for the bodily freedom to live as he deemed and love whom he desired. As one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Rustin worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to bring about the boycott of Montgomery’s segregated buses in 1956, during which time he introduced King to Gandhi’s philosophy of resistance. Rustin’s mastery of civil disobedience tactics reached an apex in 1963. That year would see him become a key organizer of the now famous March on Washington. Rustin’s struggle for equal rights was not confined to his race; as an openly gay man, he was attacked and shunned by friend & foe alike. His refusal to hide who he was while he continued to fight on the front lines of the civil rights movement revealed the heart of a hero. Explore Rustin's life and legacy in our "Men Of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth." traveling exhibition: https://menofchange.si.edu/

Multidisciplinary artist Kiyan Williams often uses soil in their work, such as in "Meditation on the Making of America" (2019). In this performance captured on video, Williams flings and smears dirt on a canvas to convey the nation's history of violence against Black bodies and land. As the performance continues, a makeshift map of the United States begins to form upon the canvas, alluding to both the nation's history of extraction of labor from enslaved people and the earth's natural resources. The soil, grasped in handfuls from a coffinlike sculpture during the performance, was originally gathered from plantation ruins in St. Croix, where Williams’s ancestors were enslaved, and from the grounds of a house that one such relative owned after she was emancipated. Come closer to @KiyanWilliams's performance and dirt-caked painting in our current exhibition "Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection." --- Image credits: 1) Kiyan Williams with their work "Meditation on the Making of America" (2019) in the exhibition "Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Colelction," 2022. Courtesy of @Hirshhorn. Photo by Shannon Finney. 2) Kiyan Williams , "Meditation on the Making of America," 2019. HD color video with sound; 16:9, running time: 26 min., 31 sec. Gift of Dr. Michael I. Jacobs, 2020. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. [Image descriptions: 1) Kiyan Williams stands in front of their artwork hanging on a white wall behind them. They wear all black and stand facing left, their head turned to smile at the viewer. Their artwork comprises three white canvases caked and smeared with soil to form a map of the United States. 2) Kiyan Williams, dressed in white, kneels to smear dark soil across the large white canvases from the previous image. Their arms, held out to their sides, are covered in soil, leaving marks on the canvases that streak over splatters of previously thrown soil.] #SmithsonianPride

Cory Perry of Northwest Arkansas explores the relationship between textiles and the body. Their work asks how textile arrangements and textures create safe spaces for Black queer people. "For me, being queer signifies the potentiality for another world, achieved through self-identifying and self-actualizing gestures. I am particularly interested in the narratives conveyed by quilted fabrics, their palimpsest beauty, and the stories they hold," they shared. "The interplay of various opacities within my work creates windows that reveal both the seen and the unseen Black queer body. Queer space is always in a state of flux and I aim to investigate the ever-changing nature of it and delve into its complexities." Cory will join us at this year's Folklife Festival as a part of our #OzarksInDC program to share more about their work and what it means to “queer” space in the Ozarks. Learn more about the Ozarks program at the link in bio. #SmithsonianPride #2023Folklife #OzarksInDC

Emma Stebbins was the first woman awarded a public art commission by the city of New York, " Angel of the Waters" atop the Bethesda Fountain. She was also in an incredibly supportive, decades-long relationship with actor Charlotte Cushman. Learn more about Stebbins life and her "abiding attachment" with Cushman on our blog (link in bio) This carte de visite of Stebbins is in our American Art/Portrait Gallery Library. _____ #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQHistory #LGBTQ #PrideMonth #WomensHistory

Artist Spotlight: #JackMitchell 📸 (1925 - 2013) . . Born in Key West in 1925, his family moved to New Smyrna Beach in 1932. From 1960 to 1970, Jack Mitchell was the official photographer for the American Ballet 🩰 He photographed most of the world's leading dance companies 👯 for The New York Times and for Dance Magazine. . . Though Mitchell is possibly best known for his numerous special assignment photographs 🎞️ for the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times from 1970 to 1995. Mitchell’s photographs appeared on the covers of and in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Newsweek, Time, Life, After Dark, Vogue, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Madam Figaro, Stern, and nearly every domestic and international publication highlighting influential artists. Among the iconic names he worked with were Salvador Dalí, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minnelli, Alfred Hitchcock, Andy Warhol, Carly Simon, Jack Nicholson, Toni Morrison and Lauren Bacall. In 2013 the Museum of Arts & Sciences accepted a fine art print donation from the late photographer Jack Mitchell and his partner Robert Pavlik of a screen print on woven paper - created by the the name most famously associated with Pop Art – Andy Warhol. This piece was produced in an edition of 250 with 26 artist's proofs numbered A-Z from Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup II series. Signed and numbered l.r.c - Artist's proof: U (21). . . This June 1st we hope you'll join us in celebrating this artist and historian's legacy and all of their contributions to the art world as we know it today. . . United States, Jack Mitchell, (1925-2013) Suzanne Farrell, 1983 silver print on paper Gift of Suzanne M. Kosmos . . United States, #AndyWarhol (1928-1987) VEGETARIAN VEGETABLE SOUP, 1969, screen print on paper Gift of Jack Mitchell and Robert Pavlik #Artfromthearchives #Smithsonianpride

May Morris promoted and preserved the art of needlework.🧵 The daughter of famed artist and designer William Morris, May studied hand embroidery at the National Art Training School. She became director of the embroidery department at Morris & Co, where she produced original designs, including cushion covers like this one. She founded a charity that offered needlework apprenticeships and co-founded the Women’s Guild of Arts to give women more professional recognition. She lived with companion Mary Lobb until her death in 1938. #SmithsonianPride - Cushion Cover embroidered by May Morris, around 1900

Happy Pride Month! 🌈 💫 🏳️‍🌈 Our first featured LGBTQ+ artist of the month is Howard Kottler (1930-1989), a ceramicist and educator in Seattle, Washington. He is best known for his multiple series of decal plates that rejected traditional studio ceramic practices that emphasized and valued hand-made objects, and focusing instead on mass-produced store-bought plates and commercial decals to create pieces decorated with appropriated images from popular culture to convey his political, social, and personal messages. The Howard Kottler papers at the Archives of American Art measure 11.6 linear feet and 0.014 GB and date from circa 1907-2006. Finding aid is available at link in bio. #SmithsonianPride #LGBTQArtists #HowardKottler 📸 : Mary Levin. Photograph of Howard Kottler in his studio, circa 1980s. Howard Kottler papers, 1907-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Alt Text: Black and white photograph of Howard Kottler sitting in his studio. He is wearing a kimono robe and has a handlebar mustache. He sits on the left side of the frame, and a sculpture is in the foreground on the right. Behind him is a shelf with books, paintbrushes, and other art supplies.