Gender Joy Art Show returns to Zeitgeist with 37 local artists

Zeitgeist’s atrium and Teatro have become a rare civic space where gender-expansive artists can be visible on their own terms. The third annual Gender Joy Art Show brings together 37 local artists, including seven PAVSA survivors, in a community-based, non-juried salon built around women, non-binary, trans and gender-expansive creators.

The exhibit opened May 4 and is set to continue through late June, giving downtown Duluth a long-running show that is as much about belonging as it is about art sales. Visit Duluth and The North 103.3 FM list the run as May 4 through June 27, with an opening reception Thursday, May 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. WDIO reported the show runs through June 28, a date difference that organizers and visitors may want to verify before planning a visit.

This year’s show adds a new layer through a partnership between YWCA Duluth and PAVSA, the Program to Aid Victims of Sexual Assault. The organizations say the collaboration is meant to raise awareness about sexual and gender-based violence while showing how healing can happen through creative work. PAVSA said the survivor pieces on view were created during its weekly Art Therapy Group, placing lived experience at the center of the exhibition rather than on its margins.

Organizers have framed Gender Joy as a response to a social climate that can feel isolating for people whose identities are often debated more than respected. Curator Avery Makesroomforthem has described the exhibit as a way to keep bringing more people together each year while celebrating the feminine divine and using art as a source of joy in a difficult world. YWCA Duluth’s Lindsay Jacobson said the opening reception will also include an art-making activity that invites people to reclaim burdens and labels they have carried, turning the event into something participatory rather than passive.

That approach gives the show a practical community role as well. Everything displayed is available for purchase, and most pieces can be bought through YWCA Duluth’s website during the run. For artists in Duluth and across the Northland, the exhibit offers visibility, income and a public setting that values collaboration over competition.

YWCA Duluth has operated in the Twin Ports since 1893, and its archive shows the first Gender Joy Art Show took place Nov. 1, 2023, at The Depot, followed by the second annual show on May 9, 2025, at Zeitgeist. In its third year, the exhibit has settled into a space where local art, survivor healing and gender inclusion meet in plain view.