Family Diversity Exhibits

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Biography

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Exhibits

Human Rights

Immigration

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer

Multiculturalism

Programs for High School Students

Family Diversity Projects' award-winning, traveling photo-text exhibits help eliminate prejudice, stereotyping, bullying, and harassment of people who are discriminated against due to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, race, national origin, religion, and disabilities of all kinds.

Designed for audiences of all ages - from early childhood to adults, each easy-to-display exhibition consists of ready-to-hang museum-quality framed photographs and are accompanied by age-appropriate laminated text panels. Bring one or more to your college or university, school (K-12), house of worship, library, workplace, corporate headquarters, or conference.

Each exhibit comes with approximately 20 photographs. They are all museum quality framed with plexiglas covering, wires on back to hang. Size of each photograph framed is 16 inches by 20 inches. Each exhibit has different configurations of text, but generally each photograph has one or two pieces of long interview text 11 inches by 17 inches (vertical). They are thickly laminated and have string on the back to hang them on walls under or alongside their matching photograph. They can also be placed flat on a table if you use tabletop easels for the photographs, or hung off of floor easels.

Exhibits include:

Love Makes a Family: Portraits of LGBT People and their Families
In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families
Pioneering Voices: Portraits of Transgender People
Building Bridges: Portraits of Immigrants and Refugees
The Road to Freedom: Portraits of People with Disabilities
We Have Faith: LGBT Clergy, Allied Clergy, and People of Faith Speak Out
Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families
Nothing to Hide: Mental Illness in the Family

See descriptions of each exhibit under Speeches.

Peggy Gillespie, the Co-Founder and Director of Family Diversity Projects is also available to to speak in conjunction with any exhibition. She is a certified social worker and was the first Assistant Director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at UMass Medical Center. A graduate of Smith College with a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, Gillespie has worked as a freelance journalist for the past fifteen years. She has written major feature articles for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Redbook, Yoga Journal, and New Woman. She is the Editor-in-Chief of all of Family Diversity Project’s exhibits and books. In addition she is the co-author of Less Stress (Signet) and the autobiography of choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones entitled Last Night on Earth (Pantheon).

Testimonials

"The exhibit was a success beyond our expectations! Students, faculty, families and visitors were gripped by the images and stories."

— Deidre Hamler, Columbus Academy, Gahanna, Ohio

"For the people of our community who were embraced by this exhibit and for the people of our community who were challenged by it. I say thank you for the opportunity to have exhibited Love Makes A Family at Auburn University. The magnitude of this event was unprecedented in Auburn University's history. It was the first GLBT cultural event ever on our campus."

— Barry A. Schreier, Faculty Advisor, Gay and Lesbian Association Auburn University, Alabama

"Thank you for the opportunity to view a powerful expression of truth by many families. May change come from those who have the opportunity to view it."

—Martin Luther King III

"Your photo exhibits are an excellent way to put faces on people we often degrade because they are different. By showing them as people you remove them from the category of 'anonymous abstractions' and cause us to begin dealing with them as the real people they are. As we work to create awareness and understanding of those who are different we value efforts such as yours to bring harmony to an often discordant reality."

— Earl H. Jones, National Education Association (NEA)

“Believers in free speech and other basic American values should welcome this contribution to information about who we are in all of our diversity.”

– Barney Frank, United States Congress, House of Representatives

“In Our Family” is such a wonderful exhibit and we are getting excellent feedback. The photos are in an incredibly well trafficked area – the main “street” of our library, and I constantly see people stopping by and looking and reading the descriptions. I am incredibly pleased and happy this will be up for two weeks instead of just one.”

- Reese Kelly Ph.D., Assistant Dean and LGBTQA Advisor, Dartmouth College

"The quality of LOVE MAKES A FAMILY was beyond our expectations and the range of diversity expressed within the families represented, really made it something that a wide range of people could relate to. I am gratetly looking forward to working with Family Diversity Projects again soon and would recommend this exhibit to everyone!"

- Nicole Chabot, Student Activities and Leadership Development, Wesleyan University

“I am also impressed with the diversity within the exhibit and how you

were able to capture such a variety of people willing to share their experiences. Thank you for working with our college to be able to bring such a valuable resource to our community.”

- Dr. Clement, Mt. Wachusett College, Dean of Students

Speeches

BELOW ARE DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH OF THE EXHBITS

Love Makes a Family: Portraits of LGBT People and their Families
Love Makes a Family includes photographs and interviews with families that have lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members. Through first-person accounts and positive images, this exhibit seeks to challenge and change damaging myths and stereotypes about LGBT people and their families. Designed for audiences of all ages, Love Makes a Family challenges stereotypes about LGBT people and helps dismantle homophobia. The photo-text exhibit consists of ready-to-hang framed photographs and text.

In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families
In Our Family explores the diversity of non-traditional family structure through conveying the experiences of non-traditional families in their own words. In Our Family promotes tolerance by encouraging discussion of who constitutes a family, and champions the understanding and acceptance of difference, a crucial aspect of anti-bullying work, by opening up a dialogue around the meaning of family. In Our Family is particularly relevant given the modern proliferation of non-traditional families, including multiracial families, extended families, single-parent households, and LGBTQ families, which continues to diversify school environments as students are increasingly required to interact daily with students of divergent social identities.

Pioneering Voices: Portraits of Transgender People
Pioneering Voices includes photographs and interviews with people of all ages who are transgender and some of their partners and children. Through first-person accounts and positive images, this exhibit seeks to challenge damaging myths and stereotypes about transgender people and to educate people about this marginalized, and often invisible group of people.

Building Bridges: Portraits of Immigrants and Refugees
Building Bridges includes photographs and interviews with people who have come to the United States as immigrants or refugees from all over the world. The exhibit seeks to challenge damaging myths and stereotypes about immigrants and refugees as a way to help prevent bullying and to help encourage respect and appreciation for this diverse group of people in the United States.

The Road to Freedom: Portraits of People with Disabilities
This exhibit focuses on children, teens, and adults with the full spectrum of physical, sensory, learning, and mental disabilities. Along with color photographs by Gigi Kaeser, the exhibit features interviews conducted and edited by Peggy Gillespie

We Have Faith: LGBT Clergy, Allied Clergy, and People of Faith Speak Out
Often, in American society today, religious and spiritual traditions and religious leaders are stereotyped as being unilaterally bigoted, intolerant or blind to the experiences, needs and rights of LGBTQ people and those they love. This exhibit challenges that stereotype by exploring the experiences of LGBTQ clergy and religious and spiritual leaders - including Christians, Jews and Muslims - as they unite their personal stories and histories with their commitment to peace, justice and civil rights through their work in religious establishments of all kinds.

Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families
This exhibit includes photographs and interviews with 20 families (children, teens, and adults) who have bridged the racial divide through interracial relationships and/or adoption. In a world where race is considered by many to be a formidable barrier between people, the families in this traveling exhibit have discovered richness and value in diversity. This exhibit of multiracial families has a great deal to teach about racial identity and racism.

Nothing to Hide: Mental Illness in the Family
This exhibit features photographs and interviews with families whose lives are affected by mental illness – schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, etc. The compelling accounts demonstrate strength, courage, integrity and accomplishment in the face of the adversity and stigma of mental illness. By bringing visibility to these individuals and their families, Nothing to Hide helps dispel harmful stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions about mental illness.

Media