Event Series:
First Friday • Scene & Heard
First Friday • Scene & Heard
December 4 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
About the Show:
Scene and Heard is a celebration of queer visibility and community. It honors the spaces and histories that LGBTQIA+ people have built for one another and affirms the need to be seen in a world that keeps trying to write us out of the story. Together, the works in this exhibition invite viewers to look closely, listen carefully, and consider what it means to be recognized as their honest self.
At the center of the exhibition is the QLT GEN project, the LGBTQIAA+ Generational Quilt Project created by Indianapolis-based textile artist Quinn Tailor. QLT GEN combines traditional quilt making with modern data visualization to share how queer people across generations experience the world today and what they expect in their future. Each quilt is built from the community’s own answers and hold hundreds of individual voices.
The exhibition also debuts two new works by Tailor, whose practice draws on a background in quilting, fine arts, fashion design, and years of LGBTQIAA+ advocacy. These pieces turn to the lived realities of being queer in an increasingly hostile world. They examine the vulnerability of sharing one’s truth in a society that often seems to wish that self would stay hidden, and the courage it takes to do so anyway. Rendered in the tactile language of textile, the works balance our desire to be accepted with the tension of resistance.
Scene and Heard honors queer voices past and present and extends an open invitation to all to come out and be seen for exactly who you are.
About the Artist:
Quinn Tailor (they/them) is a Midwestern fiber artist working to amplify diverse voices through creative expression and community activism.
Their practice blends folk traditions with contemporary design and honors quilting’s role as both functional craft and historical record. By using ancestral techniques to preserve contemporary experiences, they show the importance of fiber arts in community building, emotional processing, and social resistance.
Quinn strives to create immersive experiences that activate the community, inviting people to participate rather than simply observe. Whether through data-centered quilts, workshops, or hands-on classes, their work encourages creativity, collaboration, and connection, proving that art made together carries a power all its own.
Quinn is a founding member of Third Rodeo Arts and a studio artist at the Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi).
Visit the ArtSpace:
This exhibit is free, open to the public, and will run through the end of December 2026. There is no ticket required to attend.
Join us Friday, November 6th, 6–8 PM, to explore the show and meet the artist for a First Friday reception. This event is FREE for all ages to attend, no ticket required. Enjoy complimentary refreshments and a cashless cash bar, hands-on crafting activities led by Third Rodeo Arts, and interactive art displays. All are welcome.
If you can’t join us for First Friday, you can enjoy the show by visiting during the operating hours of Coat Check Coffee. The ArtSpace is located on the 2nd floor of the Athenaeum, accessible via stairs or elevator.
