The Kinsey Institute opened the new Dr. Caroline Beebe Gallery at Lindley Hall last Thursday.
The first exhibit in the new space, Universal Language: The Legacy of Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Kinsey Institute Collections, displays pieces that represent an array of perspectives and experiences of sexuality and gender.
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The gallery is named after Kinsey partner, donor, and volunteer, Dr. Caroline Beebe. After her passing, Beebe’s family wanted to honor her legacy and create a space for exhibits like this one.
“I was thinking about what theme I can pick that will show a diversity of people, a diversity of sexualities, a diversity of genders, and I really am thinking about also the national and state level attacks, especially on trans people,” Gallery Curator Rebecca Fasman said. “I wanted to make diversity, sexual and gender diversity, the actual theme.”
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Fasman said that it was a struggle to pick pieces to fill the room from the institute’s 110,000-piece collection. She said she still goes back and forth with pieces that were and were not chosen.
She hopes people who visit the exhibit will be interested and inspired to create their own poems and photos.
“This exhibition celebrates sexual and gender diversity, and it is really a show that is meant to inspire and create a feeling of like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone,’” Fasman said. “And there are many, many ways to exist as a human in both how you identify sexually and what your gender identification is.”
The gallery can be found on the third floor of Lindley Hall. The exhibit runs through next fall.
