See and be seen at UMass Dartmouth featuring south coast artists

Rainbow-decorated boat sails cover the walls, both inside and out, of the UMass Dartmouth art gallery as a part of their latest art show “Being Seen.”

Design, Art and Technology Massachusetts, partnered with the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMass Dartmouth to show “Being Seen: Celebrating Southcoast Pride.”

This gallery show brought together over 150 artists from the South Coast, including special guest and creative director Liz Collins, to decorate boat sails to tell the story of LGBTQ+ people in the region; both today and throughout history. About half of the artists involved are or were UMass Dartmouth students. 

“It’s about celebrating everybody as they are and not trying to change them, and to see them for who they are,” said Gallery Director Vierra Levitt. 

Some of the historical figures highlighted were David Boyce, a trailblazing artist from New Bedford, and The Public Universal Friend, a genderless religious figure. 

The boat sails included everything from painted renditions of pride flags, historical figures such as Marsha P. Johnson, messages such as “Love is love”, abstraction and even stuffed animals. 

Other pieces included photography of local LGBTQ+ people, paintings and mixed media pieces. 

Two of the artists, Kate Frazer and Chris Diani, spoke about their art during the reception on Wednesday, Oct. 8.

Frazer said she feels this show is important to highlight local historical figures that they grew up without knowing, so that others can know these people’s stories and see themselves in history. 

“I was excited to find that my history does have a place in the history of New Bedford, in the history of the south coast,” said Frazer. 

Her piece was a sister piece of a mobile library with queer books and zines.

Diani’s piece stemmed from the creation of the Philadelphia Flag, a rainbow flag with a brown and a black stripe to represent people of color in the community. He decided to photograph 49 different people against each of the colors of the flag, showing the color of the community. 

He said he feels this show is important because of the political climate, and the fact that LGBTQ+ people and people of color are being targeted by the government. 

“I feel like especially now, when we’re under attack, any opportunity to stake our claim on existence, telling people ‘here we are, we exist, we have a community, we love each other, we support each other’ is something that I want to absolutely jump on,” said Diani. 

Both were excited for the opportunity to represent their community. 

This piece is the first large-scale public artwork in Ned Bedford dedicated to LGBTQ+ visibility. 

The show will be visible and open to the public at UMass Dartmouth until Thursday, Oct. 30 during regular gallery hours. After that, it will be moving to be displayed at the Marion Art Center in February.