Browse Exhibits (12 total)
The Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario: The Fight for Queer Recognition
This exhibition provides an overview of the history of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO), an organization active from 1975-2010. The focus of the exhibition is on CLGRO's largest projects including "sexual orientation" as a protected class in the Ontario Human Rights Code, gaining legal recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships, and educating the public.
Digital exhibition curated by Jude Aylesworth
On Our Own Terms: Femme Life and Culture in Toronto, 1990-2000
The 1990s ushered in new understandings of femme gender and sexuality, and Toronto was an epicentre of the queer and trans femme dialogue, cultural production, and political organizing that activated this culture shift. On Our Own Terms explores this dynamic period through archival materials and nearly 50 oral history interviews with over 25 femme narrators. Drawing on this rich archive of ephemera and stories, the digital exhibition explores femme identity, friendship, sexuality, and world-building within the landscape of 1990s Toronto.
‘Femme’ is a term that can mean many different things to many people and the narrators in this project had creative, complex, and sometimes ambivalent relationships to the idea of femme. Historically, ‘femme’ is an identity marker that emerged from North American working-class lesbian bar culture of the 1940s and 1950s, and both femme and butch are terms that have circulated widely in queer culture. Notably, starting in the 1960s, femme was also a term used by trans women of colour in Harlem’s Black and Latinx-dominated drag and ballroom cultures. When we began this project, it was our sense that some combination of these diverse lineages and the marginalization of femmes (and others) in the lesbian-feminist communities of the 1970s and 1980s had catalyzed a renaissance of queer femme culture in the 1990s. Through this decade and into the early 2000s, there were numerous cultural projects, both individual and collective—art projects, books, performance scenes, nightlife events, community spaces and movements—that focused on reclaiming queer femininities and articulating femme “as a gender experience on its own terms” that was informed by but also exceeded lesbian histories. A significant number of these projects came out of Toronto.
Femme-led cultural production offered spaces for connection, for play and sexual exploration, and for activism and queer world-building. Femmes have initiated a disproportionately large amount of community organizing but remain under-represented in community archives. Our project strives to begin filling this gap, and we are so thankful to each of the narrators who shared their stories to help us make this history visible.
This project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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!
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.
The Queer Home: Exploring Queer Architecture, Domesticity, and Gathering in Toronto
This exhibit encompasses excerpts from a summer's-worth of research, query, and writing by intern and architecture student, Henry Ding. Henry's exhibit delves into the relationship between queerness and architecture and their interconnection to make a queer home.
Research, writing, and graphic design by Henry Ding. The full publication of "The Queer Home" is available at the end of the exhibit.
Digital exhibit mounted and curated by Madeleine Vein.
Anthony Mohamed Collection
Anthony Mohamed is a gay, South Asian, Caribbean, Canadian activist and equity worker in Toronto. He has been a pivotal figure in various advocacy groups and organizations spanning decades. The following collection, generously donated by Anthony himself, provides a glimpse into his life, activism, and work, highlighting many important moments of AIDS organizing in Toronto, and the experience of being a queer person of colour.
Digital exhibit compiled and created by Caitlin Monteiro
Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (1973 - Present)
Since 1973, MCC Toronto has been helping shape Canadian values of inclusion, diversity, and equality. A place of worship and a place of action, MCC Toronto is a vibrant and progressive church rooted in the Christian tradition and the 2SLGBTQ+ community that is open and welcoming to everyone, and a Human Rights Centre that is fiercely committed to social justice.
https://www.mcctoronto.com/about-us/
The MCC Toronto fonds at The ArQuives was processed and made available to researchers at The ArQuives by Project Archivist Stefanie Martin. This digital exhibit was created in collaboration with Stefanie Martin and MCC Toronto, and mounted by Andrew Wiebe.
This exhibit was on display in person at 115 Simpson Avenue from October 2023 to January 2024 for MCC Toronto community members and the public in celebration of their 50th anniversary.
Salaam
Salaam Canada: An Account of LGBTQ+ Muslims Living & Communing in Canada
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This oral history and research project originated out of a partnership between Salaam Canada and The ArQuives to document and celebrate Salaam Canada for their 30th Anniversary year.
Written and researched by Khadijah Kanji with contributions by Farzana Doctor, Junaid Jahangir, El-Farouk Khaki, Lali Mohamed, Imtiaz Popat (also known as Moomtaz Khatoon) & Rahim Thawer.
Digital exhibit compiled and created by Lo Humeniuk.
Johnny Abush and the Twice Blessed Collection
Johnny Abush (1952-2000) was an active member of the Queer Jewish community in Toronto. He founded the Jewish GLBT Archives, known as Twice Blessed, as well as the Queer Jewish Culture Committee.
The ArQuives houses many materials regarding his activism and involvement within his community, while his vast archive was donated to ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries in California, who have published a finding aid of the materials in the collection here.
Click on the links to the right of the page for more information on various aspects of Johnny’s life and queer Jewish communities in Toronto during his lifetime, and click on images to enlarge.
Pride and Remembrance Run: The Early Years
The Pride and Remembrance Run was founded in 1996 as an annual fundraising event dedicated to supporting the LGBTQ+ community, with a specific focus on the historical and ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS in the community. This exhibition contains archival photographs, videos, textual records, news articles, t-shirts, posters, and oral histories documenting the history of the Pride and Remembrance Run.