Snyder-Phillips Hall was filled with art, music and conversations for the second annual Transgender Day of Visibility Art Showcase on March 21. The event, which spanned from 1 to 6 p.m., included a community arts showcase, keynote speaker, art workshop with guest artists, awards and more.
The event celebrated Transgender Day of Visibility, or TDOV, an internationally recognized holiday that was founded by MSU alum Rachel Crandall Crocker in 2009. For Haley Strassburger, the assistant director of the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, holding an art show was a way for the GSCC to honor and celebrate the community on campus.
“That local history, combined with the continued and growing need for ways to celebrate and uplift trans icons of past and present, emphasizes the importance of TDOV at MSU,” Strassburger said. “An art show is the perfect format to allow participants of all backgrounds to explore creativity, identity and inclusion through an approachable medium that brings us together.”
Em Wolfe, coordinator of Transgender Student Support, works year-round to coordinate events to support transgender students on campus. For this event though, the focus centered on providing the community an outlet and space for joy, pain and visibility.
“So often our educational opportunities on trans identities are in the form of trainings like gender and pronoun trainings, which are really important but it’s really important to also provide opportunities for trans people themselves to explain their experiences actually showing lived experiences and connecting to that humanity part,” Wolfe said. “The primary focus is building empathy and humanity and celebration for trans artists and anybody is able to apply to the show.”
The event began with students and community members showcasing their art with themes of trans joy, dysphoria, transitioning, gender, systems, under the sea and more while viewers interacted with the artists about their work, engaging with statements of meaning about the art, while a panel of jurors assessed the art to award prizes to the top three.
Assistant Professor Kelly Richmond in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, College of Arts and Letters, served as a member of the planning committee and emphasized the power of art and conversations to help connect people through this experience.
“I think that there are important ways in which we connect and communicate with one another through the process of making art together,” Richmond said. “So, I hope, even if someone’s coming in, and they’re not a contributing artist for the showcase, they can be inspired by all of the works that are being put on, both in the showcase exhibition and exhibition up in the LookOut Gallery.”
The event continued with Keynote Speaker Lorelei d’Andriole in the LookOut Gallery of Synder-Phillips, where her exhibition, “Dogs Playing Poker,” is on display from March 16 through April 24. D’Andriole spoke about her art and her experiences in the trans community. Strassburger hopes that all in attendance were able to feel part of a community and learn something new about trans history, art or even themselves throughout the day.
“We’ve brought together performers and professional artists who embody queer inclusion in their work, and it’s a rare opportunity to share space and learn from trans/queer icons in the artistic field within a collegiate setting,” Strassburger said. “The arts are more important than ever, even as budget cuts nationwide threaten their longevity, and art by diverse artists traces our history and future through collective engagement and proud inspiration.”
Later, the celebration continued with four workshops that allowed participants to explore their creativity in different mediums — oil paint, prints, photography, clothing, fiber crafts, collages and sculptures. Those in attendance expressed themselves freely while connecting and collaborating with peers, which, according to Richmond, was the whole purpose of the event.
“It’s important for our students to have spaces together and to be able to celebrate creativity and creation and being visible, not simply in terms of representation, but in terms of communicating lived experience and imagining a more beautiful future,” Richmond said.
Winners of the 2026 Transgender Day of Visibility Art Showcase include community member Alice Hazel Gullett and MSU students Tristian Laney and Daniel L. Galisteo.
The photography featured in this story is by Dane Robison.
