Continuing to highlight organizations that use the arts to advance social justice, we feature a program that showcases LGBTQ+ artists and authors.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Boston Pride, the nonprofit organization that produces the annual parade, festival, and other events to celebrate Greater Boston’s LGBTQ+ community.
Boston Pride’s mission is to “produce events and activities to achieve inclusivity, equality, respect, and awareness in Greater Boston and beyond. Fostering diversity, unity, visibility, and dignity, we educate, communicate, and advocate by building and strengthening community connections.” As their vision statement adds, they do this by “embracing our community’s diverse history, culture, and identities, promoting community engagement and inclusivity, and striving for visibility and respect in unity.” And, of course, they include the arts.
Boston Pride officially launched its Pride Arts program in 2016. The program includes a series of events that focus on queer-related art and culture, and that showcases LGBTQ+ artists, authors, and creators in the Greater Boston area. Over the past five years, events have included theater and dance performances, film screenings, concerts, museum tours and art exhibits, readings, and more.
“Over the last fifty years, the LGBTQ+ community in Boston and beyond has expressed its joys, sadness, and pride through the arts,” says Linda DeMarco, President of Boston Pride. “Whether through song or theater or the visual arts, the arts have been an important part of our culture—and they have been a very important part of what makes the Boston Pride Parade and Festival special. We are pleased to continue that tradition into the future.”
Sadly, Boston Pride and the City of Boston recently announced that the parade and other in-person events will not be held this June due to the ongoing restriction on large gatherings because of COVID-19. Undeterred however, Boston Pride plans a series of virtual events to mark its fiftieth anniversary. Click here to read the recent press release.
To learn more about Boston Pride and Pride Arts, click here.
Photos: Pride Arts events have included the Oscar Wilde Tour of LGBTQ-themed art at the Museum of Fin Arts.
