The Queer Home project uses the framework of the 1972 project Womanhouse, which examined the traditional American home, removed items unnecessary in a home intended only for females, and then rebuilt the house, room-by-room to match their definition of female domesticity. Womanhouse is not without its flaws. The project did not include the perspectives of any women of color or trans women.

Queer Home uses a similar framework, shifts the focus to defining “queer domesticity”, and diversifies the perspectives included in that definition.

This definition is the product of multiple conversation taking place inside four groups that meet regularly at the LGBT Center: Transgender Initiative, Youth Leadership Team, Black Lesbian Literary Collective, and SAGE Raleigh. The physical manifestation of these conversations will be a four-room, 700sqft house built in the middle of VAE’s main gallery. Each group will use their unique definition of “queer domesticity” to build out one room of the house, transforming it into a queer home.

Guest curator Erica Cardwell has drawn inspiration from the artwork of Alexandria Smith, Lisette Oblitas-Cruz, and Chitra Ganesh, artists who have molded and shaped her queerness. Through their unique identities and personal understanding, each artist has guided the concept of queer domesticity in the environment. 

Throughout the run of this project, programming will foster intra-community conversations about domesticity and diversity, while public events welcome everyone in a celebration of all things queer.

To show Blue Cross NC commitment to diversity, artists for Queer Home were paid, in part, through the Blue Cross NC Artist Fund.