QIY Workshop 1

Kiki & Herb, Gilbert & George—many queer artists have sought collaboration as a way to elevate their art to another plane and push their ideas beyond their own ken.

Collaborations help artists explore new processes of working and give insight to how other artists think, create, and execute their work. Additionally, artists working in collaboration with each other are bound to grow, perfect and strengthen their technical “toolbox.” On a macro level collaborations help shrink our artistic worlds and help us build our artistic communities. A strong community is one that shares tools, resources as well as human power.   

This two-hour workshop—facilitated by THEOFFCENTER’s Ernesto Sopprani, and Kevin Seaman, grantmaker and independent artist, with support from Queer Cultural Center’s Pamela Peniston—will feature a short presentation of 2 – 3 local case studies of queer collaboration. 

Following the presentation, participating artists are invited to sit down with others one on one to share their portfolios and visions in a speed-dating style session. Artists are given five minutes to pitch their own art and hear from their partner before going to the next five minute conversation.  The workshop will bring together a diverse group of artists working in various artistic mediums and allow them to show off their skills and to meet other artists looking for collaborative opportunities.

After the speed-dating round, the workshop will open into a more informal setting where artists will have a more networking time to continue to talk and shape their ideas.

This workshop will not provide a captive audience for individual artists to showcase their own work but would provide a platform for artists across all disciplines to talk about their artistic vision, portfolio, and areas of potential growth. Artists are encouraged to bring portable representations of their work (digital or tangible visual portfolios, videos of performance, writing samples, etc.) to supplement their “speedy” conversations.

This survey is designed to capture information on Bay Area queer artists to be used in the following three ways:

1. To map the artistic skills, resources, and needs of participants attending “Building Patterns: Collaboration in the New Paradigm,” a workshop and networking event for Bay Area queer artists interested in artistic collaboration.

2. To help the Queer Cultural Center (QCC) and THEOFFCENTER (TOC) better understand the Bay Area queer arts community as a whole.

3. To create an artist directory to assist queer artists in finding others in their community for collaboration.

Personal contact information will not be shared and you will not be added to mailing lists without your consent. Your information will automatically be included in the composite report and you will have the option to be included in the artist directory. For more information about this survey, the composite report, or the community directory, please contact:

If you have any questions please contact: Ernesto Sopprani at [email protected]

Please visit the QIY exhibition and check out our additional workshops on June 15 and June 29.