Queer Arts Festival
The Queer Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival produced annually in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The festival is produced by the Pride In Art Society (PiA). The mission of the Pride in Art Society, a not for profit organization, is to promote the production and exhibition of queer art. The Pride in Art Society creates opportunities for dialogue between queer artists from different disciplines, encourages visibility and appreciation of queer art and artists through the presentation of events, including the Queer Arts Festival.
The QAF started as a small community art exhibit and has grown to include components from theatre, cabaret, erotica, dance, music, spoken word, and comedy. The Queer Arts Festival programs events in partnership with other Vancouver LGBT groups including Screaming Weenie Productions, the Vancouver Pride Festival and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Pride In Art (PiA) began in 1998 as a collective of LGBT visual artists mounting a community art exhibition. In its early years, PiA focused primarily on the visual arts, occasionally presenting performing arts as well within the exhibition space. In 2006, the festival expanded into other disciplines and art forms presented as part of the Queer Arts Festival. The current Artistic Director is Mark Takeshi McGregor who succeeded co-founder SD Holman in 2021.