The History and Future of the LGBTQ+
VR Museum
Jon Jaehnig | June 29, 2022

An interview with Antonia Forster, Director of the first LGBTQ+ VR Museum.
The LGBTQ+ VR Museum has been on our radar for a while now, and we initially intended to include
a mention of it in our Pride Month article. But, as that article was coming together, the exhibition
won the New Voices Award at Tribeca, and ARPost was invited to interview the Museum’s director
Antonia Forster.
Forster’s responses were so comprehensive and moving that, while the VR Museum is still listed inour Pride Month article, we elected to publish a complete article dedicated to the Museum.

The Beginning of the LGBTQ+ VR Museum
Forster was inspired to create the LGBTQ+ VR Museum after her own coming out experience“didn’t go smoothly.” She felt that if there were spaces dedicated to LGBTQ+ stories, it would foster
acceptance as well as healing.
“I searched online to find out if there was any museum dedicated to platforming LGBTQIA+ stories, andwas shocked to find out that there wasn’t one,” said Forster. “I don’t have the resources or connections
to build or curate a physical museum – but I do have the technical skills to build a virtual one. So that’s
what I did.”In the spring of 2021, Forster and developer Thomas Terkildsen began prototyping. Terkildsen
brought VR expertise, as well as the biometric element that makes the exhibition even more
personal. When visitors go through the VR Museum, their heart rate and skin response are recorded
and rendered in an artistic and individual virtual model of their emotional experience.
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“Huge thanks also to Albert Millis and Samantha Kingston of Virtual Umbrella, and Adam Tuffey, fortheir help staging our physical exhibit at Tribeca,” said Forster. “And finally, my heartfelt thanks to every
artist and storyteller that contributed their objects, voice, and art to the work! It’s been a phenomenalteam effort!”

The Museum Today
The LGBTQ+ VR Museum is home to 15 3D scanned objects with audio information, as well as 25
2D artworks with written information, all contributed by LQBTQ+ creators who wanted to tell theirstories through the VR Museum. These artworks surround a lifesize 3D scan of the three-ton marble“Memorial to a Marriage” by artist Patricia Cronin depicting her and her wife Deborah Kass.
“The statue … was created 20 years ago when gay marriage wasn’t legal,” Forster explained that only
death documents recorded same-sex relationships at the time. “Patricia created the piece as amortuary sculpture, as an elegant, permanent protest to ensure that her and her partner’s relationshipwould be acknowledged, and treated with dignity, even after their death.”
The physical monument, which Forster called “the first and only LGBTQ+ marriage equality
monument in the world,” is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx on a plot pre-purchased byCronin. Laws changed, and the couple was able to legally marry – and both are still alive. “But,” says
Forster, “the piece remains an extremely important part of LGBTQ+ cultural history.”2

Forster is currently in talks with Deloitte and the Danish Consulate in hopes of taking the experienceabroad for the first time. The hope is that showings in larger museums and institutions, with grants
and funding, will support smaller showings as well as the expansion of the collection.

The Museum Tomorrow.
Naturally, many of the early plans for the future of the VR Museum involve expanding its collectionand expanding its availability. Expanding availability comes in two ways, allowing more or smaller
installations, and allowing individual viewing.
“We’d love to expand the museum by creating bespoke versions of it on a commission basis – forexample, working with an organization or a community to collect and showcase stories from their local
queer community,” said Froster. “We’d love to build up a large enough archive of stories that users can‘self-serve’ (content most interesting to them).”Allowing smaller installations and individual viewing would be valuable but comes at a cost.
The biometric recording of the viewers’ emotions as they view the Museum is moving, but it also
requires more hardware and attendants.
“Our future plans involve exhibiting the museum without the biometric element. This allows us to stage
exhibits much more flexibly, and use as much, or as little, space as is available,” said Forster, whohopes larger-scale exhibitions will fund smaller showings. “Eventually we would like to make themuseum publicly available online. That won’t be for a little while yet though.”3

Something to Be Seen
“We’ve had such strong emotional reactions from people who have seen a story like their own,
represented for the very first time,” said Forster. “It would be even more wonderful to allow people to see
not just one story like theirs, but being surrounded by them. Or, of course, allowing people to explore
stories very different to their own!”
Whatever shape the Museum takes in the future, Forster is dedicated to making sure that it “makespeople feel seen and affirmed.” The VR Museum also allows people, LGBTQ+ or otherwise, toexperience both stories that they relate to and stories that are entirely new to them.

find this article: https://arpost.co/2022/06/29/history-and-future-of-the-lgbtq-vr-museum/4