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Queer Dreams

When

Event Status

This event is currently booked out. There will be no door sales available.

Artists, writers, musicians, performers and comedians come together to invent and challenge utopian visions for a queer future.

At this storytelling event celebrating the NGV’s QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection exhibition, queer icons and emerging artists share personal stories and reflect on the unconscious optimism of dreams and the playfulness of reverie to consider what the future might hold for queer individuals and communities.

Join us to hear reflections, performances and stories from Courtney Act, Claire G. Coleman, Nayuka Gorrie, Patricia Karvelas, Lee Pennefather, William Yang, Paul Yore and Nevo Zisin. Hosted by beloved diva Mama Alto, this event will also feature a special video message from none other than queer icon Jonathan van Ness.

From 5.30PM, enjoy a complimentary cocktail on arrival thanks to our friends at Four Pillars Gin, and explore QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection with exclusive after-hours access before the evening of storytelling begins at 7.00PM.

Presented by the Wheeler Centre and National Gallery of Victoria

Accessibility

Auslan Interpreted

You can learn more about NGV’s access services on their website. For further enquiries about how the Gallery can support your access requirements, please contact the NGV team on +61 (0)3 8620 2222 or ngvenquiries@ngv.vic.gov.au.

Featuring

Please note: Nayuka Gorrie, Patricia Karvelas and Luke King will no longer be appearing at this event.

Portrait of Courtney Act
Courtney Act

Boy, Girl, Artist, Advocate. Courtney Act is more than just the sum of her parts. In 2003, Courtney made it to 13th place on the first season of Australian Idol and then signed to Sony/BMG. In 2014 she was top three on Season 6 of the Emmy Award winning RuPaul’s Drag Race before releasing her debu... Read more

Mama Alto

Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste and gender transcendent diva. She is a transgender and queer person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness and power in vulnerability. In addition to her excellence as a performing artist, she is a writer of in... Read more

Claire G. Coleman

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Claire writes fiction, essays, poetry and art writing while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. During an extended circuit of the c... Read more

Lee Pennefather

Lee Peenfather is a 15-year-old writer and poet from Melbourne. In 2021, Lee became the overall state champion of the OutLoud Slam Poetry Competition with their poem “What Would You Say,” which explored their experience as a queer gender diverse teen. Lee has gone on to perform in multiple Wheel... Read more

William Yang

William Yang is a writer and visual artist. William Yang was born in North Queensland, Australia. He moved to Sydney in 1969 and worked as a freelance photographer documenting Sydney’s social life which included the glamorous, celebrity set and the hedonistic, sub-cultural, gay community In 1989 h... Read more

Paul Yore

Paul Yore was born in 1987, Naarm/Melbourne, and lives and works on Gunaikurnai land in Gippsland, Australia. Yore completed studies in painting, archaeology and anthropology at Monash University in 2010, before taking up full time work as an artist. He is celebrated as a prominent queer practitione... Read more

Nevo Zisin

Nevo Zisin (they/them) is a storyteller, esteemed educator on transgender topics, TEDx speaker, poet, workshop facilitator in schools and workplaces, and award-winning author of Finding Nevo, a memoir on gender transition and The Pronoun Lowdown a useful guidebook on all things related to pronouns. ... Read more

Jonathan Van Ness

Jonathan Van Ness is an Emmy-nominated television personality, New York Times best-selling author, podcaster, and hairstylist to the stars. He stars on Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning reboot series Queer Eye, and he is the host and executive producer of the Netflix series Getting Curious with Jonatha... Read more

Location

Great Hall, NGV International

180 St Kilda Road Melbourne Victoria 3000

More details

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