“Queer Afterlives in Artist Archives,” A virtual symposium hosted by the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, co-organized by Mattress Factory Digitization Archivist Sinéad Bligh and Isaiah Bertagnolli, PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Friday, April 15, 2022 - 12:00pm to 3:00pm

Queer Afterlives in Artist Archives will re-examine and contextualize Greer Lankton’s artwork and initiate discussion on her incredible collection with the communities in which Lankton was a central figure.

This symposium will bring together archivists and scholars with artists whose work engages with archives, the histories of Queer art and the identities it can reveal.

This event is free and open to the public. To register for the event, please visit this link: https://112026.blackbaudhosting.com/112026/Greer-Lankton-Symposium

Please see the schedule below for details:

Schedule:
12:00–12:10pm Opening Remarks Mattress Factory Executive Director, Hayley Haldeman, Senior Archivist Sarah Hallett and Project Digitization Archivist Sinéad Bligh

12:10–1:15pm: Writing from Archives

- Alice Butler, Centre for American Art Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK: “The Pieces of Cookie Mueller’s Adolescent Reverie (pieces in loving reply)”

- Ace Lehner, Visiting Artist, Department of Art and Art History, University of Vermont: “Galvanizing Aesthetics in The Trans Male Field: “Original Plumbing | Trans Male Quarterly and Tensions in the Contemporary Archive”


- Cyle Metzger, Assistant Professor of Art in Residence, Art History, Bradley University Design Department, Bradley University: “Greer Lankton’s Medical Magic: An Alternative Archive of Transgender History”

1:15–1:25pm Break

1:25–2:50pm: Body as Archive

- Liz Cohen, Photographer and performance artist and Eric Crosley, Poet, artist and writer

- Bekezela Mguni, Artist, Activist, Educator and Radical Librarian at Black Unicorn Library and Archives, Pittsburgh

- Carmel Curtis, Moving Image Archivist, Researcher and Curator, Indiana University Bloomington

2:50–3:00pm Closing remarks Isaiah Bertagnolli, PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of History of Art and Architecture