Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Queer Arts Festival
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1998-
History
The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) was founded by Two-Spirit artist Robbie Hong and Black artist Jeffery Gibson among other queer visual artists in 1998. Originally called Pride in Art, QAF was incorporated in 2006 as a nonprofit and the first multidisciplinary QAF occurred in 2008. In 2018, the SUM gallery was founded by Artistic Director SD Holman to serve as a permanent space to hold the QAF and host other events and artistic residencies. The SUM gallery, “is one of less than a handful of permanent queer-mandated art galleries in the world. SUM produces, presents and exhibits with a curatorial vision favouring cutting-edge, thought-provoking multidisciplinary work that pushes boundaries and initiates dialogue,” (https://sumgallery.ca/). The QAF and SUM gallery’s goals are to bring diverse queer communities together to support risk-taking art and artists, collaborate and experiment with other creators, and to celebrate the vivid history and heritage of queer art and artists. The QAF has been hosted annually since 2006 at the Roundhouse at the SUM gallery in Vancouver, and has presented over 2,000 artists in more than 450 events to over 100,000 patrons of the arts.