Informal dance party at The Bloomery to celebrate the exhibition: We are Here to Stay: Welcome to the Queerdom by Maddie McDougall
Tarot readings will be available by donation!
"We are Here to Stay: Welcome to the Queerdom" is an installation work featuring interactive performance by artist Maddie McDougall. Channeling childhood curiosity, imaginative play, and reclamation of oppressive histories, the queerdom is a place where oddity rules and our collective sense of security is cradled in an iridescent warmth. Individual identities are both uniquely represented and infinitely interconnected.
The installation shows evidence of destruction and apocalyptic pain, but glittering, queer strength has risen from the wreckage. Together with the audience— and materials ranging from tulle to neon paint to repurposed building materials, and a magical dress-up trunk— the queerdom grows into an ecosystem of magic and joy where our imagined future of safety and togetherness becomes a reality.
About Maddie McDougall
Artist, Maddie McDougall
I make art about life, illness, death, femine identities, survivorship, reincarnation, queerdom, healing, childhood, bodies, fantasy and memory. I am a painter who gets distracted. I make things that are funny, that are soft and tender. I make things that are painful, that are raw and indulgent. I exist in a world of conflict and communion. I've found connection and overlap in my queer identity and my artist identity. I create from a need to survive. to survive and be heard.
I am an artist, educator, and community organizer currently living and working in Easthampton, Massachusetts. I have used my foundational skills as a painter and printmaker to expand my practice to encompass interdisciplinary formats including installation, fiber, sculpture, and social experiences.
After 3 years of serving as a Visual Arts Educator in Springfield Public Schools, in the summer of 2021 I collaborated with artist Grace Vo to establish Resilient Community Arts (RCA), a non-profit organization working to sustain efforts for social progress and equity through affordable arts programming. My work within RCA has tied into my long-time passion to bring reform to the museum and gallery culture that historically has limited access to the arts as something that is typically created and consumed by privileged demographics. While RCA is still in its very early stages, I dream of the organization one day being a model for the intersection of meeting inclusive community needs with interdisciplinary arts and creative practices, producing a cultural footprint that is truly reflective of all of humanity’s diverse stories.
My personal artwork is also significantly influenced by social and political concepts, rooted in the belief that the personal is political. My personal artwork has explored themes ranging from shame and the female identity, bodies, and trauma, healing under capitalism, queer identity, and survivorhood.
Since 2021, my work has been expanding towards a more imaginative, future-focused, experimental voice that has amplified my queerness and highlighted the joy found in natural forms. In the Summer of 2022 I started experimenting with video in combination with installation. Visit my portfolio page to see complete pieces as well as works in progress.
