Handing Over the Mic: How LGBTQ+ Partnerships Transformed a Museum

PEM Pride: Werk of Art after hours dance party and drag show – Image: Peabody Essex Museum

Most museums want to be more inclusive. That’s not the issue. The real question is how.

Is it a matter of better programs? A more diverse collections policy? Hiring more community advisors? All of those help—but at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, they found that the most transformative tool wasn’t a policy or a program.

It was partnership—the kind built on trust, shared goals, and a willingness to let go of control.

And what happened when they leaned into that approach? Everything changed. Programming got more meaningful. Audiences became more diverse. And the museum found itself not just reflecting its community—but evolving with it.

At the Museums & Public Programs Summit 2025, Lillian Santiago, Public Programming Coordinator, and Hannah Varden, Manager of Community Engagement at PEM, shared their journey.

PEM Pride: Werk of Art after hours dance party and drag show – Image: Peabody Essex Museum

A Different Kind of Inclusion

The usual strategy for inclusion in cultural spaces often follows a familiar script: invite community groups to participate in pre-designed programs, highlight diverse voices during designated months, and check in again next year.

But PEM recognized that wasn’t enough. Real inclusion, they realized, required more than good intentions. It demanded reciprocal relationships—the kind grounded in transparency, care, and long-term commitment.

They developed six strategies to implement a trust-based approach:

1. Provide transparency about what is being asked of external partners, what the museum will offer in return, and what is realistically possible within institutional limitations.

2. Seek out community voices and assume good intention, especially when receiving constructive feedback.

3. Collaboratively set shared goals with partners and use those to structure action items and ensure follow-through.

4. Foster an inclusive environment, where community partners can express themselves authentically—free from biases around professionalism.

5. Value and maintain relationships as assets, even when there’s no active programming.

6. Show up and support partners beyond the museum—attending their events and inviting them to PEM’s as guests.

In short: they treated trust like a strategy.

The Panorama Queer and Trans Film Festival – Image: Peabody Essex Museum

The Festival That Sparked Transformation

In 2023, Queer Videography and Mac Allen had already launched a new kind of film festival—one centered on queer and trans stories—at a local cinema in Salem. After its success, they reached out to PEM to help expand the impact.

PEM said yes. They scheduled the second iteration during the December school break, a deliberate choice to hold space for LGBTQIA+ engagement outside the traditional confines of Pride Month.

The Panorama Queer and Trans Film Festival was born. PEM partnered with Queer Videography, Mac Allen, NAGLY (Northshore Alliance for GLBTQ+ Youth), and Love Your Labels. They also connected with Miz Diamond Wigfall and her drag collective, The Hometown Queeros, to engage youth in a pre-festival workshop.

PEM hosted the vibrant opening night event—with drag performances and runway walks. While the initial festival didn’t include panels or hands-on art-making, these elements were added in the following year as partnerships deepened and programming expanded.

What started as a single event quickly became a catalyst—for deeper collaborations, internal reflection, and rethinking how programming could center community from the outset.

The Panorama Queer and Trans Film Festival – Image: Peabody Essex Museum

Rethinking Pride, Together

PEM’s shift in philosophy was especially visible in how they approached Pride.

Thanks to feedback from Miz Diamond and NAGLY, a one-off workshop evolved into a six-week program where queer youth explored drag, choreographed performances, and performed to sold-out crowds. It was Pride—reimagined through partnership, creativity, and leadership from those it celebrated.

New Formats, New Voices

The collaborations didn’t end there.

For Halloween, PEM and The Hometown Queeros staged a drag-infused shadow cast of the horror film X. It was wild, witty, and entirely community-driven.

In 2024, the Panorama Festival introduced a zine-making station where visitors of all ages contributed to a living archive of queer expression.

The museum also live-streamed a panel on queer filmmaking to over 1,000 viewers—moderated by staff members who brought both subject expertise and lived experience to the conversation.

Throughout, PEM kept asking not “What do we want to say?”—but “Who should be speaking, and how can we support them?”

Pride Is a Season, Not a Day

Perhaps the most radical aspect of PEM’s approach? It doesn’t end when the rainbow flags come down.

Monthly “queer joy” workshops—run in collaboration with NAGLY and The Hometown Queeros—offer queer youth a space for creativity, reflection, and celebration.

And starting in June 2025, PEM will launch queer community gatherings tailored for adult audiences, further weaving LGBTQIA2S+ stories into the fabric of the museum’s year-round programming.

PEM is also working with Salem State’s LGBTQIA+ archive to incorporate queer narratives into the city’s 400th anniversary—ensuring these voices are not just heard, but centered.

The Takeaway

What PEM is doing isn’t just admirable—it’s instructive.

They’ve shown that when museums invest in trust, when they shift from hosting to partnering, the results speak for themselves. Audiences expand. Programming deepens. And the community begins to see the museum not just as a venue—but as a collaborator.

If you’re working in the cultural sector and looking for a place to start, try asking:

– Where can we share the mic?
– Who are we building with?
– What would change if we focused less on outreach—and more on relationship?

Because sometimes the most powerful move a museum can make… is to step aside—and listen.

Lillian Santiago, Public Programming Coordinator, and Hannah Varden, Manager of Community Engagement at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), shared this presentation at the Museums & Public Programs Summit in May 2025.