Exhibit to highlight LGBTQIA+ historical images
Nov. 7—MANKATO — Laura Magliorino admits that if she had her way, all past subjects would be taught through the use of art history.
With that thesis as her premise, she started photographing what are essentially topic archives to create a series called The Hidden Life of Books. One of those book topics — gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender studies — is coming to RACA Gallery at Poor Farm Studios opening Wednesday.
Magliorino has taught art and photography at Anoka Ramsey Community College for 37 years. It was through there that she met Brian Frink, retired Minnesota State University art professor and owner of the RACA Gallery.
The gallery is in the old Blue Earth County Poor Farm south of Mankato off of County Road 16.
Housed at the University of Minnesota, the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection holds 3,500 linear feet of LGBTQIA+ material in 58 languages. The photo series captures the elegant beauty of the archival books, animating them and bringing the pages to life.
As it comes to life, Magliorino said, it becomes more accessible to young people. And it helps provide context to their lives, just as the Italian family history shared with her by her mother did.
These subjects are not always taught, however.
"I think whatever your history is — and to our person from a marginalized community, whether BIPOC, etc. — I think needing to know that history is super important," she said. "I'm very interested in getting this history to young people."
Her work started while she was at the American Academy in Rome, where she had an affiliated fellowship. One thing Rome is known for, of course, is a plethora of historical resources.
Photographs of books may not sound visually appealing, but she takes the photos with that in mind. The idea, she said, is to draw people into the subject with the image. Then an accompanying QR code is there to be scanned and provide the observer with more topic information.
Through the photographs and associated information, the long-suppressed and actively erased history of the community can be understood through a unique path.
"The idea there is to create this kind of really sumptuous, luscious, beautiful photograph, but then it tracks the viewers' attention," she said of the process. "And then the subject matter, you know, is sort of secondary; hopefully, that it will attract them into the subject."
Said Frink, "Laura approached me with the idea and I loved it."
As part of the grant she received, she was required to have four exhibits within the year in outstate Minnesota. Winona and Mankato are among them, as is New London.
"It fits RACA's mission to bring contemporary art to the rural Minnesota community," Frink said, adding that he received a Minnesota State Arts Board grant to start up exhibitions after COVID.
