DENVER — The Center on Colfax and Rocky Mountain College of Arts and Design (RMCAD) partnered to host an art contest called "The Words We Teach...", highlighting Denver LGBTQ+ history with local middle, high school, and higher education art students.
This contest asks participants to produce an original artwork inspired by the story of Wendell Sayers, Irene De Soto, and the Transsexual, Lesbian, and Gay Defense Coalition.
“I partnered with the Center on Colfax, and specifically David Duffield, who is an organizer of this contest, to think about the ways in which we can build, you know, institutional connections,” Stephanie Kang, RMCAD Assistant Professor of Art History said. “Ultimately it’s a way of being able to document these stories and be able to tell them through art, and also allow the students that participate in this contest to be carriers of these stories as well, and be able to circulate them through their own visual language.”
Kang said the name of the contest “the words we teach...” comes from the quote “the words we teach our children shape the world.”
“So we decided that we wanted to create a contest that was ultimately about highlighting LGBTQIA+ histories in Denver that often just get overlooked or ignored in official histories,” Kang said. “One of which was the history of the Gay Coalition of Denver.”
The Gay Defense Coalition organized a historic Denver City Council protest in 1973 to raise concerns about discriminatory laws. Kang said many historians consider this protest as Denver’s “Stonewall” moment.
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“This eventually allowed for four laws to be overturned that were specifically used to target queer people,” Kang said.
The contest also highlighted Wendell Sayers.
“Wendell Sayers, who was not only a gay man living in Denver - particularly at a time when it was incredibly unsafe to do so - he was the first Black assistant attorney general in the state of Colorado,” Kang said.
Irene De Soto was also a focus of the contest
“She was a trans woman of color living in Denver…she was murdered by police,” Kang said.
Recent Denver East High School graduate Madelyn Arnold was a contest winner who depicted the Gay Defense Coalition and De Soto in her artwork.
Arnold said De Soto’s story truly spoke to her.
“When I saw her mug shot, one of the only pictures of her, she just like really looked really angelic,” Arnolds aid. “I'm also a trans person, and it's not really safe to be a trans person. In Colorado and Denver, it is a lot more acceptable. And I’m really glad I moved here, because that's when I really discovered the queer community. But I really just like identified with her because I’ve had friends who haven't been safe in school. So I really wanted to create a piece that talked about that and the importance of protecting the trans community.”
Kang said Madelyn’s interpretation of De Soto and the protest were incredible.
“Madelyn has two works in the exhibition, one of which is right behind me,” Kang said. “Their ability to really capture these stories and integrate it with their own kind of understandings of queer history is really just impressive.”
Contest winners artwork is currently displayed at a gallery on the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design’s campus in Denver.
