Exploring Creative Intervention in the New Brunswick DIY Community
For my Creative Engagement project in “Media, Movements, & Community Engagement,” I am focusing on representing the LGBTQ+ community in the New Brunswick DIY community. There is an overwhelming representation of cisgender, straight individuals within the New Brunswick DIY scene, which unfortunately means the LGBTQ+ community is underrepresented. This is a problem because the New Brunswick DIY community and music scene are a major part of this city. By creating a piece of art that publicly celebrates and showcases the queer musicians in this city, I hope to highlight this city’s diversity and create spaces and opportunities for LGBTQ+ voices to be heard and to be celebrated.
To achieve this goal, I hope to showcase artists within the LGBTQ+ community and highlight the beauty of their diversity. This will involve reaching out to individuals who fit into this community. Specifically, I have had the opportunity to speak with individuals who are currently working on poems, art pieces, and music related to their queerness and their experiences in the DIY community. Speaking with these people and learning from their stories and their art will hopefully help me solidify what my final art installation will be.
This project is not just about creating a single piece of art. I see this project as a way to foster engagement and dialogue within the DIY community in New Brunswick. By creating opportunities for these underrepresented artists to showcase their art, we can create a more inclusive and diverse community. For example, I can envision a series of open-mic nights encouraging these artists to share their work with the community. Additionally, partnering with already existing spaces for these artists, such as live shows hosted directly on campus or performance-based clubs like Verbal Mayhem, would be really exciting.
As for the location of the art installation, I am considering Ale ‘n ‘Wich Pub, a bar on the corner of Hamilton and Louis St. The bar features a large brick wall outside with great visibility, making it a prime location to display art. Many DIY show attendees hang out at this bar after shows. Also, it is becoming more of a space for queer students to go out on campus, which means that it is a place where the LGBTQ+ community is already gathering.
Another potential location for this art installation is the Gamma Sigma house on Union Street. Gamma Sigma is the co-ed social fraternity on campus, known for its inclusivity and queer population within the fraternity. Their house, located on “frat-row” is right off of The Yard, the hub of businesses on College Avenue. Although there isn’t a very visible open wall on the house, I could see potential in painting the entire house somehow or building a wall/physical art piece on the house’s property. However, I will also be exploring residential New Brunswick, especially Louis Street, Hamilton Street, and Easton Ave, more extensively for more location ideas. This will allow me to find the perfect location to showcase this important exhibition.
I hope that this art installation can benefit the queer community of Rutgers University and New Brunswick as a whole. I am currently researching potential change agents/organizations that have the capacity to improve the quality of life for queer DIY scene inhabitants. The Feminist Art Project is an organization within Rutgers University that is “an international collaborative initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present” I plan to speak with someone involved at the organization to learn more about their initiatives and see if they have interest in aiding the queer DIY scene community members.
I hope to help uplift the voices of the underrepresented so the New Brunswick DIY scene can be a more accurate, diverse representation of art in this city. Through speaking with more individuals from this community, and researching more change agents that can help support them, I hope to use creative media as a means to uplift underrepresented voices in this community I hold so dear to my heart. Work is being done, and I look forward to seeing how my ideas can help further the support of this community.
