INTERVIEW: A Poetic Archive of Queer Life and Resistance at the Tang Museum
Through 7/20 @ The Tang Museum, Saratoga
Installation view, a field of bloom and hum, February 14 to July 20, 2025, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Photographs by Mindy McDaniel.
“The stories we heard built an archive in real time, and made the impact very present and of the moment. The artists shared aspects of their lives and experiences that profoundly changed all of us.”
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College is abuzz with celebration and resistance. As the museum marks its 25th anniversary, it also presents one of its most ambitious and timely exhibitions to date, a field of bloom and hum, a poetic archive of 100 years of queer life curated by Tang Museum Director, Ian Berry.
The exhibition is on view through July 20th and features over 150 artists and 300 works of art, offering a diverse story of queer experience, creativity, and community.
“The urgency of preserving and presenting queer archives ramped up in January when we were installing the exhibition,” said Berry. “The goals didn’t change, but the context did.” Amid increasing political scrutiny of libraries, museums, and LGBTQ+ visibility, a field of bloom and hum positions the archive not as a static record but as living testimony.
Each gallery space juxtaposes the documentary and the symbolic. For example, candid photography sits beside abstraction, coded imagery, or deeply personal gestures that may speak most clearly to those within the queer community. All viewers have many points of relation to the layered histories of survival, joy, and transformation.
The exhibition’s title is from Night Shift in the Home for Convalescents, a poem by Carolyn Forché, known for her work as a poet of witness. Berry chose it for its dual meaning of beauty and collective energy which reflect the themes of the exhibition. “I knew the exhibition needed a title that honored both the public and personal networks of the intertwined lives in the show. I wanted something that suggested a way of looking at the show that was less timeline and more poetry,” he said.
The idea for the exhibition grew organically from the work in the Tang’s permanent collection and expanded through key loans and artist contributions. “It was important to open up the process,” said Berry, who invited outside curators like Jon Davies, Beck Krefting, and Tom Healy to contribute programming, from film screenings to comedy nights to readings with queer poets. “Their advice was crucial.”
The Tang has had many free public events throughout the run of the exhibition. A standout, Berry said, was What If We’re Beautiful, a live dance performance in the gallery with choreography by Brian Lawson and Aaron Loux and music by composer Daniel Thomas Davis.
“It was an emotional moment that connected us on many levels,” said Berry. “Not only did Brian and Aaron dance like a dream but we also had the composer and lots of family with us, plus the amazing quartet, Hub New Music, played live in the gallery surrounded by the artwork and the dancers.”
Photo by Shawn LaChapelle
Student involvement also shaped the exhibition in profound ways. Throughout the spring, student researchers interviewed participating artists in a weekly oral history series.
“Their preparation and engagement was inspiring,” said Berry. “The stories we heard built an archive in real time, and made the impact very present and of the moment. The artists shared aspects of their lives and experiences that profoundly changed all of us.”
If you haven’t yet visited, there’s still time! The exhibition closes July 20th, and the Tang’s annual community open house, Frances Day, is on July 19th. This event will include live music, tours, artist-led art making projects, and food to commemorate its 25th anniversary.
Upcoming Events at the Tang:
July 19: Frances Day: Tang 25th Anniversary Celebration — A special day of art, performance, and community.
July 20: last day to view a field of bloom and hum
More information available at: tang.skidmore.edu
