The Adams State University Visual Art Department is hosting the History Colorado Traveling Exhibition Rainbows & Revolution in the Cloyde Snook Gallery from August 4 until October 23, 2025. The Gallery will host an opening reception from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27.
The Cloyde Snook Gallery will also host closing reception on Thursday, Oct. 23, which will follow a lecture by exhibition curator Aaron Marcus at 4 p.m. in the Visual Art Building Room 225.
Rainbows and Revolutions explores how LGBTQ+ people’s very existence in Colorado has been a rebellious act: form quiet assertions of identity to loud and proud demonstrations for civil rights, equality, and liberation. The exhibit features stories of LGBTQ+ Coloradans and their allies who changed the cultural, business, and political landscape of our state over generations.
The exhibition begins with Early Advocates, looking at the 1950s and 60s when some of the first gay rights groups were emerging nationally and in Colorado.
Sparking Change elaborates on the growing advocacy movement of the 1970s, when businesses aimed at gay clientele opened, social and recreational groups formed, and activists organized events like the “gay revolt” at a Denver City Council meeting, known as Colorado’s Stonewall, in 1973 and the Transvestite, Lesbian, and Gay Defense Coalition’s protest against police violence towards transgender people in 1978.
Crisis & Community examines the impact of AIDS on the community in the 1980s– and how LGBT people sought joy, entertainment, and connection through the tragedy.
The Hate State? looks at the legacy of Amendment 2–which restricted legal protections for homosexual, lesbian, and bisexual people. Many of today’s LGBTQ+ organizations in Colorado trace their beginnings to the fight against this discriminatory amendment.
Finally, Toward Liberation seeks to capture the spirit of the LGBTQ+ movement today– a movement characterized by striving to move beyond assimilation or mere “equality” and toward liberation through creativity and solidarity.
The Hatfield Gallery will host the Adams State permanent collection of photos of installations by Christo and Jeanne-Claude during the same timeframe.
