A Space for Dialogue 119

Two figures in an intimate embrace.
June, 2024

Embracing Vulnerability: Gay Intimacy in the Context of AIDS

Colin Donnelly '24, Class of 1954 Intern

Published by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, 2024, 4 pages

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Embracing Vulnerability: Gay Intimacy in the Context of AIDS reclaims gay sexuality as something intimate, affirming its beauty in the face of the legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination and marginalization during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The way in which these works reckon with this history through tender depictions of intimacy reframes queer male sexuality as natural and desirable rather than dangerous and obscene.

A Space for Dialogue is a student-curated exhibition program that began in 2001. Hood Museum of Art interns create an installation drawn from the museum's permanent collection by engaging with every aspect of curation, from doing research and selecting objects, to choosing frames and a wall color, to planning a layout and writing labels and a brochure, to giving a public talk. There have been over 100 A Space for Dialogue exhibitions on a wide variety of themes.

Publication type: A Space for Dialogue Brochures