Local Art and Activism
Mary Foltz and local community members establish a historical marker in Kutztown honoring LGBTQ+ artist and activist Keith Haring
Despite having lived all over the country, Mary Foltz, associate professor of English and director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, has cemented the legacies and stories of many local LBGTQ+ figures through oral histories, public humanities projects and exhibitions. Foltz is the co-director of South Side Initiative (SSI) and received the ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship thanks to all of her regional history work. The fellowship aims to bring scholars into community organizations and it allowed Foltz to work on a project to honor renowned LGBTQ+ artist and activist Keith Haring.
When the director of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown suggested a project with the state marker system, an idea was born. Foltz, Mark Wonsidler from Lehigh University Art Gallery (LUAG), and the Kutztown Area Historical Society worked together to draft a proposal to the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC) to establish a marker for Haring. “There are so few LGBTQ+ people that are commemorated in terms of state level memorialization and historical markers,” Foltz remarks.
It took them six months to draft the proposal but little did they know community activist Robert Tuerk of Philadelphia had also submitted an application. Along with letters from a number of regional art galleries including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Reading Public Museum, the Allentown Art Museum, and Michener Art Museum, there was a lot of momentum to honor Haring. “Collaboration makes things happen,” Foltz notes.
The decision to place the marker in Kutztown, Haring’s hometown, was a natural choice. “I like the idea of a marker in a more rural space. LGBTQ+ people tend to be associated with urbanity, but that's fictional. We're everywhere,” Foltz says. Haring often introduced himself as “Keith from Kutztown.” The maker is placed next to Haring’s childhood home on the grounds of the 1892 Public School Building which now houses the Kutztown Area Historical Society.
“It will be a marker that celebrates a really important gay figure, AIDS activist, anti-apartheid activist, environmentalist thinker, and one of the most important artists to emerge from the late 20th century in the United States,” Foltz says. “It's important that we have representation of queer people so that all people feel like they belong to this commonwealth. That our stories matter.”
The historical marker ceremony in early October drew a crowd of almost 300 people. Featured speakers included Dr. William V. Lewis, Jr., PHMC; Ashley Strange, Executive Director, Governor's Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs; Liz Bradbury, Board Director of Keystone Equality and Co-Founder of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Center, Allentown; Foltz; Tuerk; and Dr. Brendan Strasser, Librarian/Archivist, Kutztown Area Historical Society. Speakers highlighted the importance of community action and Haring’s art, activism, and life. Haring’s sisters were the ones to unveil the marker.
“[Keith Haring] said art is for everyone…He really saw art as inspiring democratic engagement and civic engagement with urgent issues.”
“Keith Haring’s work is important because of his focus on art and democracy,” Foltz adds. “He said art is for everyone…He really saw art as inspiring democratic engagement and civic engagement with urgent issues.”
Foltz remarked that all of us should take Haring’s lessons to heart. “We need more of that. Art that calls us in to see ourselves as connected to each other and involved in the process of reflection on urgent issues impacting humanity.”
Foltz is committed to documenting and archiving the stories of LGBTQ+ people in the Lehigh Valley who have made a difference. “I am someone who adamantly believes that there is no liberation movement without all of us from so-called ‘flyover country,’” she says, like those in small cities like Allentown and Bethlehem or small towns in the Lehigh Valley. For five years, Foltz has been working with students to create projects with the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive.
“We are in the community as scholars,” she remarks about her work with SSI. “How can Lehigh support our neighbors on the kinds of projects and concerns that matter to them?”
Just like Haring, “I believe we can make real substantial change in the communities where we reside,” Foltz says. Haring’s art and activism inspires people around the world and his life in Kutztown and NYC continues to make a lasting impact. And thanks to Foltz and others, his legacy will be commemorated for years to come.
Photos thanks to the Kutztown Area Historical Society. Click here to view the full gallery from the unveiling event.