{"id":32818,"date":"2024-06-28T12:27:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=32818"},"modified":"2024-06-28T13:04:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T17:04:21","slug":"kylie-fisher-and-alex-aradas-26-elevate-lgbtq-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/kylie-fisher-and-alex-aradas-26-elevate-lgbtq-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Kylie Fisher and Alex Aradas \u201926 elevate LGBTQ+ art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/kylie-fisher\/\">Kylie Fisher<\/a> (she\/her), an assistant professor of art history at Furman University, is a storyteller at heart. Through her work with the Queer Arts Initiative (QAI), a movement of the <a href=\"https:\/\/upstatelgbt.org\/\">Upstate SC LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, she wants to ensure more stories are told about and by members of the queer community.<\/p>\n<p>Fisher, a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/women-gender-sexuality-studies\/\">Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies<\/a> program, saw an opportunity to expand conversations beyond campus. This summer, she secured funding for an undergraduate research fellow, Alex Aradas (she\/they) \u201926, and together they\u2019re collaborating with the QAI on several goals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a database of queer-friendly art venues and locate additional and larger spaces for accommodating diverse art forms,<\/li>\n<li>Curate art for a joint QAI\/Furman juried exhibition in Furman\u2019s Thompson Gallery titled \u201cFound Family: Queerness and Community in the South,\u201d set for mid-September through mid-November, and<\/li>\n<li>Establish an inventory of Upstate murals and their representations and identify opportunities for LGBTQ+ artists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cI feel like this project was made for me,\u201d said Aradas, a politics and international affairs and studio art double major who came out during her middle school years. \u201cI\u2019m passionate about the advocacy side of politics, and I think this project is really grounded in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32826\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32826\" class=\"wp-image-32826 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2024\/06\/kylie-fisher-and-alex-aradas-26-study-mural-500.jpg\" alt=\"two white women study mural\" width=\"500\" height=\"330\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2024\/06\/kylie-fisher-and-alex-aradas-26-study-mural-500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2024\/06\/kylie-fisher-and-alex-aradas-26-study-mural-500-150x99.jpg 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/330;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32826\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kylie Fisher (left), assistant professor of art history, and Alex Aradas \u201926 study a mural by Eric Benjamin.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fisher said Aradas\u2019s identity and her background in the social sciences and studio art made her the perfect choice for the fellowship, giving Aradas a chance to build on her skill sets and network with the community.<\/p>\n<p>Just a few weeks into the research, Aradas said the work has revealed some startling realities about the LGBTQ+ art landscape in the Upstate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really surprised by the lack of queer representation in Greenville\u2019s murals. There are hundreds, but not a single one was dedicated to a queer space or had anything to do with LGBTQ+. That was a little shocking to me, and it didn\u2019t feel right,\u201d said Aradas. She eventually discovered a queer artist who had crafted murals in Greenville and nearby Travelers Rest, but none depicting LGBTQ+ themes. She and Fisher are hopeful about having the artist\u2019s input for the QAI project.<\/p>\n<p>In the classroom, Fisher uses socially engaged art history to disrupt traditional silos and narratives found in academic or museum settings and bring them to a broader public audience. Her QAI work does the same. A big believer in art as communication, she hopes to build empathy and understanding in the region.<\/p>\n<p>She wants to characterize and amplify the queer arts scene to focus on lifting those historically marginalized voices. She hopes the QAI\/Furman exhibition will spark discussions about identity and community and move Greenville\u2019s diversity from the fringes to the center.<\/p>\n<p>Fisher said the belief is that Greenville doesn\u2019t have a queer arts scene at all. \u201cBut that\u2019s not true,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just lack a central hub where that work can be showcased.\u201d She explained that apart from <a href=\"https:\/\/staymodal.com\/gallery\/\">Modal<\/a>, a downtown boutique hostel and coffeehouse, she doesn\u2019t know of another venue dedicated to LGBTQ+ art in the area, but it\u2019s an important start toward furthering QAI\u2019s mission toward providing queer artists outlets for their work, a way to promote themselves and sell their art.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Aradas is grateful for the chance to be mentored by Fisher who, Aradas said, embodies the very best of Furman and makes the university a better place. \u201cShe\u2019s constantly working, volunteering or researching something new.\u201d Fisher\u2019s energy knows no bounds, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Aradas loves every minute of the research fellowship and is thrilled about its direction and future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt might be clich\u00e9 to say this, but representation is so important,\u201d she said, recalling a visit to a downtown Greenville mural by Ninja Picasso that focuses on the homeless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gvlhomes4all.org\/seen-heard-valued-mural\">\u2018seen-heard-valued,\u2019<\/a> and it reminded me that this project is important because it challenges some of the narratives and stereotypes about queer people,\u201d Aradas said. \u201cThis work is about making queer spaces in the community so that everybody feels valued. Because everyone deserves to feel like they have a space where they can exist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fisher and Aradas, a summer research fellow, tackle several goals in a project focused on the Queer Arts Initiative, an advocacy movement championed by the Upstate SC LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":32850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,97,70,2711,32,61,55,93],"tags":[601,2876,2872,2875,2873,2874],"class_list":["post-32818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-center-for-interpersonal-connection","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-engaged-learning","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-the-furman-advantage","category-undergraduate-research","category-womens-gender-and-sexuality-studies","tag-lgbtq","tag-lgbtq-advocacy","tag-lgbtq-art","tag-modal","tag-queer-arts-initiative","tag-upstate-sc-lgbt-chamber-of-commerce"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32818"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32849,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32818\/revisions\/32849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}