Groups and organizations often rely on the talents of individuals to encourage participation, education, growth and camaraderie, and a new exhibit opening at the Leather Archives & Museum seeks to unearth the contributions made to Chicagoland area BDSM/leather/kink/fetish communities by people of color.
Excavating Experience: The Presence of LGBTQ People of Color in Cook County is a multi-media exhibit which opened Saturday, July 2 at the LA&M in Rogers Park.
Excavating Experience draws upon materials from the museum's archival holdings, as well as images, artifacts, ephemera and oral histories donated by people of color within Cook County's BDSM/leather/fetish/kink communities specifically for this exhibit. Focusing mainly on participation by people of color in clubs, events and organizations, the LA&M exhibit's goal is to both inspire and to encourage participation.
"This exhibition will serve as a small glimpse into the myriad ways LGBTQ people of color have contributed to the leather community in Cook County," says Alisa Swindell, curator of the Excavating Experience exhibit. "From forming organizations to being representatives as titleholders to the mere fact of being present, these people have helped to make this community what it is."
The Leather Archives & Museumwhich is celebrating its 25th anniversary this fall has been repeatedly named to popular offbeat tourist destination lists ( Chicagoist, RoadTrippers, WBEZ-FM NPR and more ), and acts as a community hub for adult programming throughout the year, welcoming locals and tourists alike. Lectures, screenings and events at the museum are diverse in nature, and LA&M programmingsuch as the Excavating Experience exhibitseeks to reflect contributions from everyone involved within the BDSM/leather/fetish/kink communities. ��"Practicing kink is universally a part of sexual exploration," says LA&M Executive Director Rick Storer. "The LA&M is excited for this exhibit to show how people of color in Chicagoland have practiced and performed leather/fetish sex, and how they have built community around it." Storer says that exhibits like this one are critical to the core LA&M mission, and that contributions to BDSM/leather/fetish/kink communities by people of color must be visible. ��Swindell agrees, reiterating that the twin goals of the Excavating Experience exhibit are to inspire and to encourage participation. "We hope that this exhibition will encourage more people of color in the community to share their history with the LA&M."��Excavating Experience: The Presence of LGBTQ People of Color in Cook County, IL runs from July 2nd, 2016 to January 8th, 2017 at the Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N. Greenview Avenue in Chicago. This exhibit is made possible through a grant from the LGBT Fund of the Chicago Community Trust. For more information on the Excavating Experience exhibit and LA&M, please visit LA&M �
The Leather Archives & Museum is dedicated to the compilation, preservation, and maintenance of leather, kink, and fetish lifestyles. Our museum galleries serve to present educational and historical material to an adult audience. Our reading library and archives serve to support researchers and community members in accessing materials and documentation relevant to the history and culture of leather. LA&M is located at 6418 N. Greenview Avenue in the Rogers Park/Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. For more information on the museum, please visit www.leatherarchives.org .
ABOUT ALISA SWINDELL, CURATOR OF EXCAVATING EXPERIENCE��Alisa Swindell is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she focuses on race and sexuality in the history of photography and works at the university's contemporary art space, Gallery 400. Ms. Swindell has previously worked on exhibitions at the St. Louis Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, taught art history at art colleges and universities, and written for exhibition catalogues and art and culture journals. For more than 10 years Ms. Swindell has collaborated with the Leather Archives & Museum in various capacities. As someone whose work centers on modes of representation for people of color and LGBTQ communities, she is very pleased to take on this project. ��