2026 Coat of Many Colors Exhibition - Dogwood Gallery & YNST Magazine (Due Apr. 27)
2026 Coat of Many Colors Exhibition - Dogwood Gallery & YNST Magazine
Deadline: April 27th, 2026
“We are thrilled to announce the call for submissions to Coat of Many Colors, an exhibition illuminating LGBTQ+ identity across Appalachia. Commemorating living history in a region colored by vibrant originality and rich cultural heritage, this gallery explores what it means to be LGBTQ+ in Appalachia today and how LGBTQ+ people express their identity.
The exhibition opens on June 5, 2026, just in time for Knoxville’s Rhinestone Festival, celebrating legendary musician and longtime LGBTQ+ ally Dolly Parton.
THEME
Coat of Many Colors invites artists of any physical medium from across Appalachia to explore how members of the LGBTQ+ community express, own, wear and live out their personal & collective identity as queer people. Whether through fashion, lifestyle, culture, beliefs and values — these personal and communal facets patchwork together to form the colorful spectrum of what it means to be queer.
With all the joy, strife, levity, pain, intimacy, beauty and intensity that accompany it, LGBTQ+ people express their identity in a kaleidoscopic, complex array of ways personally and collectively.
We invite artists to explore the following in their work:
How do queer people express their identity? Is it worn like a coat? Is it woven into their framework?
How is it different from person to person? How do the threads connect? How does the community’s shared identity quilt together?
How do LGBTQ+ people express their identity specifically in Appalachia— a land older than life itself and marked by persistent challenges?”