Browse Exhibits (41 total)
How Our Stories are Told: Introduction to Queer Disability Literature through the Archive
This digital exhibition is written to highlight the collection of literature in The ArQuives that navigates this intersection of queer disability through critical thought, artistic expression, histories, fiction, poetry, and expressions of community care. For those interested in understanding this intersection through different avenues, these 15 selected books will be broken down into three categories: Critical Thought, Expressions & Experience, and Disabled Sex. The literature is broken to fit different points of entry into the experience of queer disability. Critical Thought focuses on professional studies and higher ed. analysis, Expressions & Experience is suited towards a more artistic and personal interpretation, and lastly Disabled Sex focuses on the location of desire in the body - a focus that has a unique place in the discussion of queer disabled folks.
Queers in Your Ears
Queers in Your Ears is a storytelling collective that has been active in Toronto since 1997.
This exhibition documents their history and showcases the different stories they have told over time. Focus is also on their performance venues, most of which have a deep connection to Toronto's queer communities.
Digital exhibition curated by Johanna Wrede (she/they; Ruhr University Bochum/University of Duisburg-Essen). Many thanks to Queers in Your Ears for their participation and support in the curation process!
Community Ties: Our Future Together
With support from Women and Gender Equality Canada, The ArQuives launched Community Ties: Our Future Together to help us assess our current capacity, identify opportunities for growth, and plan strategically for the future. This project is a part of our ongoing effort to grow The ArQuives’ national presence, and strengthen our ability to serve communities across Canada through expanded programming and services.
En 2024, avec le soutien de Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada, les ArQuives ont lancé le projet Liens Communautaires : Notre avenir ensemble pour nous aider à déterminer notre capacité d’action actuelle, identifier nos opportunités de croissance, et planifier stratégiquement pour le futur. Ce projet fait partie de notre effort permanent pour faire évoluer la présence nationale des ArQuives et renforcer notre aptitude à servir les communautés à travers le Canada par l’expansion de notre programmation et de nos services.
Maggie's: 4 Decades of Sex Worker Activism in Toronto
This exhibit discusses the history of Maggie's Toronto Sex Worker Action Project, a local activist group and registered charity with a 40-year presence in Toronto.
Founded in 1985/86 by queer sex workers in response to the AIDS crisis, Maggie's has championed safe sex, harm reduction, and mutual aid from the beginning. Their projects have, time and time again, addressed underserved and underacknowledged realities of sex work in the city throughout history, fighting AIDS stigma, advocating for trans rights, pushing for policy reform, and more. They have collaborated closely with local and national groups alike to enact change, while prioritizing on-the-ground action.
Here at the ArQuives, we are the proud keepers of dozens of files pertaining to Maggie's' founding, planning, activism, events, and communications both public and private. This exhibit draws from these resources to guide you through the organization's long history and enduring legacy.
Content warning: This exhibition contains explicit imagery, language, and discussions of sex, sex work, the AIDS crisis, STIs and other diseases, violence against sex workers, violence against trans people, and systemic injustice. Some original imagery may contain advice that is no longer considered accurate, or phone lines and addresses that are no longer active. For current guidance, please refer to the Further Reading Section.
No Bad Blood: A History of 2SLGBTQIA+ Blood and Plasma Donations in Canada
This digital exhibition will examine both the history of the 2SLGBTQIA+ blood donation landscape in Canada and the policy changes and community organizing that followed. Using primary sources drawn from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, activist records, and medical research, the exhibition will focus on scientific findings, bias and fear, and the fight for an evidence-based approach to blood screening.
The exhibition was funded by the Wisdom2Action and Canadian Blood Services Microgrant Program for 2SLGBTQIA+ community-based non-profit organizations.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows Documentary
This exhibition showcases Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society's documentary Emergence: Out of the Shadows (2021) directed by Vinay Giridhar. The documentary follows the lives of three queer South Asian individuals and their families.
Copies of the documentary were donated to The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives and is available for on-site viewing. The collection can be accessed through F0266 Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society fonds.
For all screening, distribution, or related inquiries regarding the documentary, please contact founder Alex Sangha at info@shervancouver.com.
Library of Alexandria for Whores: The Jelena Vermilion Collection
Jelena Vermilion, founder and Executive Director of Sex Workers' Action Program (SWAP) Hamilton, began gathering materials by, for, and about sex workers in 2020. This collection has since grown into the Jelena Vermilion Collection, digitally housed at the Hamilton Public Library and The ArQuives, and is now one of the largest sex work media archive collections in history.
This exhibition showcases Vermilion's sex work art and activism, work with SWAP Hamilton, SWAP Hamilton's media library archive, events, and a commissioned Sex Worker Portrait series.
The HISTORYTELLERS Project
This exhibition is from The HISTORYTELLERS Project by Grade 10 students at the Garth Webb Secondary school, Halton District School Board. Students wrote stories reflecting on the photographs about Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ history from The ArQuives' collection and edited by community members.
The stories are organized into the themes of:
- Building Our Community
- Protests for Our Rights
- Honouring Our Joy
- Expressing Our Queerness
The exhibit also features audio recordings of students reading the stories.
QuAIA: Censorship and Pride
This exhibition examines the activities of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) during the time of their operation, through the use of materials recently received by The ArQuives. This exhibition seeks to document Palestinian solidarity within queer spaces, and the suppression of activism at Pride events.
Curated by S.D, York University.
Bisexual Activism in Toronto, 1980s-2000s
This exhibition highlights various manifestations of bisexual activism and community building in Toronto from the late 1980s to the 2000s. Through the formation of support groups that were established in the late 20th century, the materials in this exhibition will demonstrate how bisexual activists combatted invisibility within the larger queer community and created safe, affirming spaces in which bisexual people could come together.
Exhibition by Gabryelle Iaconetti, Concordia University