The Columbus Museum of Art, located at 480 E. Broad St. in downtown. Credit: Courtesy of the Columbus Museum of Art.
The Columbus Museum of Art will present its newest exhibit, “Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection,” on Friday.
The exhibit was made to honor a gift of 50 photographs to the museum by the Aronowitz family of Columbus, said Kaitlin Booher, the museum’s associate curator of photography and co-curator of the exhibit.
“This was an exhibition that the museum hoped to do because the Aronowitz family had expressed interest in making a major gift to the museum, and it’s a wonderful gift,” Booher said. “So it was a wonderful opportunity for a collection.”?
The exhibit supplements the gifted photographs with 100 additional photographs from the museum’s collection, according to the exhibit’s website.
Lydia Simon, the museum’s director of marketing and communications, said it is exciting to share a Columbus-based story through this exhibit.
“These photographs were collected by a Columbus family, so this is a Columbus story,” Simon said.“I think that’s very exciting to be able to share with Columbus.”?
Booher said the exhibit highlights a variety of photographic techniques.
“There’s many different kinds of photography represented, so I think that’s exciting for viewers,” Booher said. “There’s Polaroids, little drugstore prints, beautiful color photographs, and a platinum-palladium print.”
The exhibit displays the photographs in a “salon-style” setup, evoking how people display photography in their homes, Booher said.
“People in their houses tend to do this a lot, like, the gallery wall in your house,” Booher said. “I think that’s a much more domestic way of living with artwork and photographs now.”
Booher said the exhibit’s name comes from how it draws connections between depictions of queerness across different artistic styles and eras.
“There’s lots of overlapping networks of artists in this show, and there’s people who are inspired by their predecessors, or different artistic lineages represented,” Booher said. “I think constellation is a nicer word than network, but it would also work in this application.”?
The exhibit, Booher said, draws these connections between photographs by how they are displayed.
“Often there would be, like, two people in a photo, and they pose in a certain way, and then in another photo from a totally different time period, there’s something of a similar gesture,” Booher said. “So there’s connections drawn just by installing photos next to each other.”
Booher said there is a long artistic history of queer people using photography to highlight their identities.
“There’s an artistic lineage and an artistic tradition that does have to do with people who happen to be gay or lesbian, working with photography, and using the medium to represent their identities. They also happen to elevate the medium to fine art,” she said.
This exhibit continues the museum’s history of highlighting queer art and history, Simon said.
“Columbus Museum of Art has a long history of presenting LGBTQ+ art and history,” Simon said. “‘Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection’ is a continuation of that important work here at the museum.”?
Booher said she thinks younger generations will identify with the exhibit, as they are familiar with using photos to communicate.
“We all take photos of each other and ourselves, and share them, and use photography to communicate,” Booher said. “I think that there’s a lot about the show that will be intuitive and recognizable to younger generations.”
Booher said she hopes college students see the exhibit because of this generational familiarity with photography as a medium.
“I very much hope that college students in particular come to see this show,” she said. “It’s such an image-savvy generation.”?
“Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection” will be on display at the Columbus Museum of Art until March 21, 2027. Admission is free for all visitors ages 25 and younger.
