Keith Haring - Tate Liverpool

In August 2019 we had the best artistically queer time ever! We headed to Tate Liverpool with some generously gifted tickets to take around 15 of our young people to see the Keith Haring Exhibition!

To explain why this was all kinds of queer greatness, you must first understand who Keith Haring is and what his art is all about! Haring is an internationally famed artist, he does line drawings and his style is usually titled as ‘pop art’. Using his trademark line drawings, Haring became instantly recognisable for his pop style art. This then catapulted him from the underground art scene in New York City to a career that would see him mingling with the likes of Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Yoko Ono, and Madonna (can you imagine THE Madonna liking your art... big massive gay win).

Unfortunately, his life was cut short in 1990, when he contracted AIDS-related complications. Nonetheless, his legacy has continued to thrive and today, Haring is recognised not only for his artistic strengths but also his ability to use his art to raise awareness for causes near and dear to his heart. He is often grouped together with other graffiti and street artists from this era in New York, including Jean-Michel Basquiat. In fact, their artwork is often exhibited together as a way to demonstrate how their lives in New York intersected at this time.

As one of the pioneers of 20th-century contemporary art, he helped pave the way for outsiders to enter into mainstream success. In fact, many of the urban artists we know and love today, from Banksy to Shepherd Fairey, draw lessons from Haring’s career. Haring believed that art is for everyone, no matter what factors surround them, saying ‘Art is nothing if you don’t reach every segment of the people. Art is for everybody.’ Which is why it is especially lovely that our young people were able to freely and excitedly explore his exhibition and relate and get inspired by his work.

Our young people spent hours upon hours enjoying the interactive sections of the exhibition from a neon-glow rave room to exploring the different themes and mediums that Haring used.

A big thank you to @tateliverpool for giving us the opportunity to take a group of our young people to the Keith Haring Exhibition. We had the best time and had so much fun during our 20 min rave 😂 #KeithHaring devoted his career to creating a truly public art. He wanted his work to reach as many as possible. 'Art is nothing if you don't reach every segment of the people. Art is for everybody.'

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It is exciting to see themes and experiences within art that you can relate to. Art does not have to be fine china recreations and oil painting, it can be street art, it can highlight class inequality, it can express violence and heartbreak and hope and love. Art is whatever you can make it to be. That is the beauty of Haring’s work: He expresses this so perfectly through funny stick men and striking paintings.

Our exhibition tour was full of questions and inspirations - “can we do our own?’’and “Can we stay here forever?” - safe spaces can be found in the most unusual places, even in Tate Liverpool in a neon-glow rave room designed by Keith Haring full of teenagers all exploring who they are and who they want to be.

Haring was an openly queer activist and used his artistic talents to change many people’s worlds. You can do the same. From our inspired young people who came on the trip, to the kids who couldnt make it- you’re all capable of creating greatness.