URBANA — Earlier this year, when the Spurlock Museum in Urbana was considering ideas for a Pride exhibit, Dale Mize took interest in the project.
Mize works at the museum and is a history Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He found that of the almost 50,000 objects in the museum’s collection, very few specifically relate to queer culture.
So, Mize started digging.
“I had to get creative and think about the different histories that I had read and encountered through my studies as a historian,” said Mize, the curator of the Spurlock Museum’s first-ever Pride exhibit, “Rainbow Reflections,” which opened June 1.
The new exhibit features a collection of objects representing queer history from Champaign-Urbana and around the world.
The items Mize found include Japanese fans, sake and tea cups and a small sculpture of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Each item, while perhaps not directly associated with LGBTQ+ culture on its own, could be tied to the often secret histories and rituals taken up by queer people in different parts of the world, according to Mize.
The cups, he said, represent covert gatherings that were held in Victorian England.
“It was illegal to go to bars as a queer person, and even just hanging around your friends could throw signals, so they would host intimate tea parties and tea dances as a way to get around that,” Mize said.
These objects were paired with items of local significance. Two panels from the AIDS memorial quilt honoring Ronald Steinhoff-Thornton and David K. French were included in the exhibit, as well as a gown, jewelry and wig that belonged to Central Illinois drag queen Mona Monclair.
Both the quilt panels and the costume have been included in previous exhibits at the museum that highlighted Champaign-Urbana’s queer history; Sewn in Memory and In Her Closet.
“It feels like a statement, especially in the current moment that we live in,” Mize said. “You can see that the U.S. flag is nodded to, but then the Pride rainbow is the majority of the dress, which I think really speaks to what Pride is about, kind of. It’s for everybody.”
Mize said museums play an important role in looking after artifacts that tell stories of marginalized communities.
“History needs to be preserved,” he said. “I think that it is still a difficult thing to find stuff just because there’s silences in the archives for a variety of different topics. Most of it’s about forms of control, honestly; governments trying to push something out of the archive in order to keep it quiet.”
President Donald Trump’s executive order to national parks and museums like the Smithsonian Institution to remove materials that “degrade shared American values” has put pressure on museums across the country to edit or close certain exhibits dealing with race or gender.
Elizabeth Sutton, the Spurlock Museum’s director, said the Pride display is a show of support.
“We understand this is a tough time, but we’re not willing to back down from our mission, which is really showing the history and the art of more marginalized populations,” she said.
The exhibit had many supporters of its own. More than 60 people attended the opening event held Sunday, many of whom had direct or indirect connections to some of the items on display.
“Gathering in community to be visible about where we stand fills up my heart and recharges my battery to continue to face it all,” said Nicole Frydman, manager of communications and development at the museum.
The gathering was lively, with spirited conversation among old friends and upbeat pop music echoing through the museum’s galleries. But on a regular day, the museum is often quiet and subdued, providing ample space for contemplation and, as the exhibit’s title suggests, reflection.
Mize said he hopes “Rainbow Reflections” can provide comfort to those who might not feel comfortable attending the parties or parades that characterize Pride season.
“I think that Pride is for everybody,” he said. “This is a space where I feel like people can just look at something on their way through, feel like they’re part of something greater and part of the community, even if they’re not able to outwardly express it.”