Mapping Q: 2022 features artwork by LGBTQIA+ youth from across the state of Arizona. The works in this exhibition reflect the struggles and creative resilience of LGBTQIA+ youth artists, who skillfully communicate what it means to identify as LGBTQIA+ today. This gallery also showcases work from Mapping Q: 2020, which – due to the COVID-19 pandemic – could only be hosted online. For the first time in Mapping Q history, this exhibition reflects the energy, stories, ideas and experiences of LGBTQIA+ youth over the span of two years.
Since 2014, the UAMA has hosted the Mapping Q program in collaboration with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. We welcomed one•n•ten as a second community partner in 2020, allowing us to serve youth across the state of Arizona.
In an effort to connect youth with positive representations of themselves, we expanded Mapping Q to include three practicing LGBTQ-identified artists in 2022. Each led a virtual workshop with youth participants, sharing why they celebrate being “amateurs” and how they use art to find comfort, as well as some of their art-making techniques. The teaching artists – Lex Gjurasic, Lucas Disalvo and Anaysa Stark – were also invited to submit work for this exhibition, making this the first intergenerational Mapping Q.
Image: Jed D. (b. 2001), DYSPHORIA (Part 1 of series), 2018, Ink on Bristol board
