Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit

By: ASU Student Lily Kurth

In 2022, an artifact exhibit called “Rainbows and Revolutions” was

installed in Denver’s History Colorado Center. The exhibit, curated by History Colorado’s Associate Curator of LGBTQ+ History, Aaron Marcus, is a collection that provides snapshots into the lives of those who have been fighting for LGBTQ+ liberation in Colorado since the early of artifacts th 20th century. A watch with promotional art for the 1996 Aids Walk on its face, a 5th anniversary pin for the Woman to Woman Feminist Bookcenter that operated in Denver in the 70s and 80s, a sweatshirt welcoming people to “the Hate State” and demanding the repeal of Amendment 2 (a ballot initiative that passed in 1992 which rolled back anti-discrimination policies in Colorado): these items and many more are displayed in tall, colorful glass cases alongside informational placards explaining the historical context. A timeline of important events relating to LGBTQ+ liberation is affixed to the wall surrounding the display.

The Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit gives a deeply personal account of what the fight

for LGBTQ+ equality has looked like in Colorado, a critical perspective to be able to

share during a polarizing time for LGBTQ+ issues. To increase visibility of the exhibit, and to

hopefully expand it with even more artifacts from more places in Colorado, History Colorado

decided to take part of Rainbows and Revolutions on tour around the state. First, it went to the El Pueblo History Museum in late 2023, then to Colorado Mesa University in mid 2024. Its next stop was here in Alamosa: from August 27 to October 23, 2025, part of the exhibit will be on display in Adams State University’s Clyde Snook Gallery. Coordinating this was easier said than done, however, and involved a multitude of community organizations working together to pull it

off.

The project began when Heidi Schneider, the Adams State Sociology Department Chair

and Assistant Professor of Sociology, visited the History Colorado Center in February of 2023, while she was still serving as Inclusive Excellence Liaison (IEL).

“I went to History Colorado to go actually look at their [Borderlands of Southern Colorado] exhibit, which had a lot to do with Chicano and Hispanic advocacy and activism in the state of Colorado,” Schneider said. “And through that tour ended up in the Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit, and [it] really struck me, I didn't know of the long history of activism and advocacy around the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado.”

During her visit, Schneider met Marcus, who told her that part of the display was going

on tour soon. He said they were looking for places for the exhibit to stay and asked Schneider if she’d be interested in bringing it to Adams. Schneider jumped at the opportunity.

As IEL, Schneider spearheaded many projects and programs related to promoting safety and belonging on campus. “The Student Health and Wellness Center, uSafeUS, Green Dot training, Safe Zone Training, Kindred Spirits, the special emphasis observance months. I also sat on the Campus Climate Survey Report Committee--I think that was in 2019,” Schneider recalls.

“And then in 2021-22, the Great College to Work For survey, which was both employees and

students.”

“And one of the themes that came back was that our LGBTQ+ employees and students

did not feel safe in our community, and they didn't feel recognized, celebrated, and didn't feel that they had spaces, especially off campus, to go to have a real sense of community.” The Rainbows and Revolutions project would be another way of giving visibility to vulnerable

populations in the Valley that need it.

The next two years would see Schneider and the Adams State Equity Board working

together with a myriad of different partners to get Rainbows and Revolutions to the school. They reached out to SLV Pride, a grassroots LGBTQ+ advocacy and resource group in the Valley, to get their input on whether or not this exhibit would be helpful to the community. Vince Alcon, Director of Student Life and Co-Curricular Recreation & Engagement at Adams, was the

connecting thread between the school and SLV Pride, as he is also Co-Chair of that organization. He and the SLV Pride team agreed that hosting the Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit would benefit the Valley.

“I think Alamosa right now is in a space of tolerance, not acceptance,” said Alcon.

“When I was first coming to school here in 2013, I felt that it was more not welcoming to queer

individuals. It was harder to go walk down the street, you would get called names…And that

throughout the years has more and more gone down…But we haven't gone to the place where, as a whole, it’s as accepted.”

Manny Feliu, another SLV Pride board member, has also had a finger on the pulse of the

queer community in the Valley for a long time. Feliu is the CEO of Team of Empowered Allies, aka SLVTea, which hosts a relatively new LGBTQ+/ally hangout and resource center in

Alamosa called the Tea Spot.

“The truth is that the majority of the queer community in the San Luis Valley is closeted,” said Feliu. “[The Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit] shows them a level of representation here in this Valley that, historically, has never been seen before. And for those who question the validity of having that representation out here, it validates to them the need for it by viewing the history.”

“That's what a lot of the gay rights movement is about, visibility, and making it known

that we're here, we're queer, and we're here to stay,” Alcon said. “And I think this is, part of it is, a statement that Adams State is making, like, hey, this is a part of our history that we want to respect and honor.”

The plan to get Rainbows and Revolutions to Adams was officially set into motion.

Schneider wrote and was approved for a grant to cover the down payment for transporting the exhibit to the school. She attended meeting after meeting with all the different entities the Equity Board was partnering with on the project to make sure everything went smoothly. “I'm working

with community organizations like SLV Pride and Tea Spot, I'm working with History Colorado

to facilitate the contract, working with Finance and Purchasing to review the contract, to make sure that it's okay, working with the Art Department to make sure that they can house it, that it's going to fit,” Schneider said. “People might not understand how much background work goes into bringing something like this to campus, you know, it just shows up and it's here. But someone has to put in the sweat equity in order to make it happen.”

Schneider’s colleagues on the Equity Board and Office of Inclusion were also heavily

involved with coordinating these efforts. The Adams State Vice President for Community and

Global Impact and newly appointed Executive Equity Officer, Florencio Aranda III, was able to procure funds for the remaining costs of hosting the exhibit when other arrangements fell

through. Aranda’s role had been recently created to be a permanent seat at the Adams State

Executive Council, which Schenider was occupying temporarily from 2022-24 as IEL, so that

inclusivity on campus was given as much priority as possible. “For me, it boils down to

something very simple,” Aranda said. “We all want to feel loved. We all want to belong, and we all want to feel appreciated and valued and heard. And so if I can continue to provide spaces,resources, sources of knowledge and awareness through whatever mechanism, that's kind of my biggest thing.”

Schneider and Aranda would continue to work together to bring the Rainbows and

Revolutions project over the finish line until Schneider passed the IEL torch to Desiree Lewis in May 2025. Aranda consulted the gallery director for the Art Department, Anthony Guntren, to decide where the exhibit would be displayed, and they eventually settled on the Clyde Snook Gallery. Once it finally arrived, Guntren assisted Marcus in setting up the display and started on some advertising efforts for the opening reception.

“It’s a little different than we're used to over here in the art department,” Guntren said.

“The word ‘art’ can go a lot of different ways. This particular exhibit is a little bit more of the

artifact, but I think the critical thing about this show, that people may not realize, is that it takes

these little moments and these little steps along the way for the last 75 years, to make these

changes; they don't happen overnight. And so it's nice to see these little things kind of be

acknowledged and say, hey, this little thing led to this little thing and made it for a bigger thing, and eventually those little things add up and I think that marginalized groups still have a long way to go, unfortunately…but those little steps a great deal, and I think this show pays tribute to

that.”

There was only one other hurdle leading up to the opening of the exhibit at Adams. The many collaborators on the project all echoed a similar concern: was there going to be pushback? Though Alamosa itself is more tolerant of LGBTQ+ individuals, the surrounding San Luis Valley area is less so. “I wasn't expecting a massive protest or anything, but you never know, man. People do weird stuff,” Guntren said. Despite these reservations, the Equity Board and other partners ultimately decided it was worth the risk.

“I think the fact that there was so much talk about the reception of it, in such a rural and

more purple area of the state, helped us make the decision to actually host it here because of the importance of hosting it here,” Feliu said.

It was finally time to open the exhibit to the San Luis Valley community. The evening of

August 27, 2025, saw a few dozen students, faculty members, and community members gathered in front of the Clyde Snook Gallery, eating food and listening to Aranda, Feliu, Alcon, and a few others share their thoughts on the exhibit. Then, they entered the gallery itself and quietly made their way around all of the displays, taking in all of the artifacts and history.

“I just felt absolute happiness, knowing that the work that we do, the collective and

collaborative work that we do as the Impact Board through my office and with our campus

partners, that it's all well worth it when you're able to see the fruits of your labor, the passion and the love that you have to serve people from all backgrounds. It's a beautiful thing.” Aranda said. “An additional piece that I thought was beautiful is that…it hits home, right? Because it's Denver, it's Colorado. It's the SLV region. And so not only is it to highlight the LGBT community, but it also brings it more centered and specific too.”

“It was such a juxtaposition to what was happening in the world, right? So in that space,

it was all loving, it was all celebration,” Alcon said. “But in all reality, the way our

administration is, or the way our politics are, it's really working against that.”

The pushback the collaborators were wary of did not manifest that day, nor has it on any day of the exhibit’s stay so far at Adams. This spells out a hopeful prospect for the future of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Valley. “I think so much of the reservations from organizations and entities and people that have been in the Valley for so long, around the reception, around queerexposure and celebration and community visibility, is more of a longstanding sort of historical context reservation,” Feliu said.

Rainbows and Revolutions’ stay at Adams is coming to an end, but the exhibit still has a

lot to offer in other parts of the state. Feliu is working with History Colorado to add artifacts and information to the display focused specifically on LGBTQ+ history in more rural parts of

Colorado, like the San Luis Valley. That way, as the exhibit continues to go on tour, it will give a more rounded perspective on the long fight for equality that has brought us to where we are today.

October 23, 2025, will be the last day you can visit Rainbows and Revolutions in the

Clyde Snook Gallery. There will be a lecture by Marcus in room 225 of the Adams State art

building from 4-5 p.m., followed by a closing reception from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery itself. Any

additional foot traffic in the exhibit before it leaves proves even more to all the partners that

worked to bring it to the school that their efforts were well worth it. “I would say come out, come in with an open mind, one that will allow you to learn and grow and get a deeper understanding of their perspective, of their lived experience of what they went through, ‘they’ meaning the individuals that are showcased in the art exhibit,” Aranda said.

“Two and a half hours from any major urban space over a mountain pass means that we

In the Valley and at Adams, we don't have the opportunity to engage with these kinds of artifacts and exhibits on a regular basis,” Schneider said. “And I would just hope that people would take the opportunity to go see the exhibit while it's here…They'll learn something for sure. And I think promoting it even to the larger valley is something that could build connections between Adams State campus and the community at large.” LGBTQ+ history is complicated. It looks different everywhere, and the fight is still

ongoing. “We are progressing. We've come a long way, and there's still a long way ahead. There are dedicated good people working to increase visibility and celebration of identity within the valley,” Feliu said. “Being able to authentically represent and live your life allows you to more easily accept the validity of others' identities. And the road for the Valley moving forward in that acceptance and celebration of all identity... it will take making more history, you know?”