The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States, and GAZE is what happens when an advocacy group decides the message might land better as an exhibit than as a pamphlet. In HRC's words, "Changing hearts and minds is the first step toward advancing equality. Reaching people through art and interactive experiences is an innovative way of directly connecting to communities." The concept and etched panel artwork come from HRC's regional chapters: Texas for San Antonio, Oregon for Portland.
A future full of light, love, and acceptance for all.
GAZE opened at Hopscotch San Antonio on August 5, 2021 as a limited-time exhibition and was popular enough to stay. It arrived in Portland in June 2023 with that venue's opening. HRC Magazine has written about it twice, the San Antonio Current covered opening night, and PBS News Hour featured Hopscotch in a 2023 segment on how exhibitions like this are changing the way people take in art. HRC also runs artist collaborations tied to Latinx Heritage Month, Juneteenth, and Black History Month, but GAZE is its most prominent standalone work.
The exhibit is a labyrinth of transparent acrylic panels, 34 of them in Portland, 22 in San Antonio, lit with black light and washed in a programmed rainbow of LEDs that shifts slowly as you walk. Each panel is etched with affirming text and motifs, and the etching catches the light differently as colors cycle, so the words glow, fade, and glow again. It feels like walking through a prism. The messaging is in the material itself, not pinned to a wall. You read it while you are inside it, and the maze creates natural pauses for exactly that. The aim, per HRC, is to carry visitors beyond their own experience.
GAZE is not a June-only affair. It is permanent in every Hopscotch, so Pride has a home here year-round. HRC membership is available in the Shop if the exhibit moves you.
