2014 was a big year, full of research, travel, and more importantly connecting communities in museums. Nicole and I are going to carry on the work of QTM but before we are face to face with 2015, here is a recap of Revealing Queer:

• Exhibition opened 2/14/2014
• King County Executive Dow Constantine declared 2/14 King County’s Official LGBTQ History Day
• RQ supported a 17 % Growth in MOHAIs digital communication channels, including 2,405 new followers
  • On MOHAI’s Facebook there was an increase of 1,014 followers or 14%
  • On MOHAI’s Twitter there was an increase of 1,007 followers or 16%, with 376.4k impressions.
    • 795 retweets
      • 612 favorites
      • 3% average engagement
      • 204 Tweets about Revealing Queer
      • @MOHAI shared 31 tweets w/ #RevealingQueer
      • 45 total Favorites & 49 Retweets
  • On MOHAI’s Instagram there was an increase of 384 followers or 139%
    • 48 posts using #RevealingQueer
    • MOHAI posted 9 photos related to Revealing Queer on Instagram
  • During the run of the exhibition MOHAI launched a collections initiative to build their LGBTQ collections resulting in
    • An increased of their 3-d objects from 284 to 345 objects
    • All of the exhibition information went into the object records to advance the research of Northwest LGBTQ histories
    • MOHAI continues to look for LGBTQ related objects as they continue to research their collection
  • Public programs were incorporated into MOHAI’s educational offerings welcoming in over 1,000 people for the LGBTQ specific events, including:
    • Member Preview and Opening Night Celebration, February 2014
    • History Café—LGBTQ Seattle, February 2014
    • Safe Spaces Training, April 2014
    • American Alliance of Museums Onsight Insight—Insider’s Look at the Queering the Museum Project, May 2014
    • Revealing Queer Walking Tour: A History of Queering up [Capitol] Hill, June 2014
    • Revealing Queer Walking Tour: “The Queen City Comes Out”: A Walking Tour of Early, Queer Pioneer Square, June 2014
    • Pride Family Day, June 2014
  • MOHAI continues to build their relationships with LGBTQ communities by hosting Queer theme public programs with their History Café program, on February 19th MOHAI will host a History Café titled The Impact of HIV/AIDS in Seattle.

In reflection the partnership between MOHAI and QTM produced an exhibition that was well received, built capacity for MOHAI, and a benefit for the LGBTQ communities.

So now what?

Over the last year Nicole and I took a year off to gather our thoughts, write them down, and put them out there in the world. We have both been working to ensure that our work is useful to the field. In an attempt to continue our work we have decided to make use of this website as a resource to continue understanding how museums are engaging with Queer communities, ideas of other, intersectional approaches to the field, as well as emerging research addressing non-normative ideas of identity. This website will likely develop over time into more than a blog, but also into a forum for people to engage with these ideas. The 2015 comeback will allow this website to be useful for professionals across the world, and will grow to include the voices of a multitude of professionals. We invite you to share with us work that engages LGBTQ audiences; together we can create a more comprehensive understanding of the field and continue to advance LGBTQ engagement in museums.

Email us at queeringthemuseum@gmail.com