The exhibition “To See the Beauty of my People: A Tribute to Sylvia Rivera” is on display in the Peter P. Peters Ellipse Balcony on the third floor of the library.

In honoring Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002), who was a Latina trans woman and prominent advocate for the transgender community, the exhibit showcases the stories, experiences and voices of Fresno State students and community members. It features new work from the community-engaged artist-in-residence with LGBTQ2+ Programs and Services, Jay Lynn Gomez.

The exhibit was co-organized and curated by Félix Vargas, Coordinator of LGBTQ2+ Programs and Services, and Gloria Negrete- Lopez, professor of  Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. This collaboration hosts the first artist-in-residence to facilitate art workshops for Fresno State, meet with students and community members to create new work based on Fresno and give a guided tour of the exhibit.

Jay Lynn Gomez is an acclaimed artist from San Bernardino whose art centers around advocacy for labor workers and her identity.  Her work is featured in the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, MCA San Diego, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Pèrez Art Museum Miami and many more.

“It has deepened what I’ve always known: that collective exchange through art-making shared between LGBTQ2+ and allied students, faculty, staff and community members holds the potential to foster a true sense of belonging at Fresno State,” Vargas said. 

The collaboration started in January 2026 when Gomez first met with students at the Artist-in-Residence Welcome Session hosted at the Cross Cultural and Gender Center to discuss her story and art, while answering students’ questions.

Then in February, Gomez shared space in the Fresno State Laureate Lab Experimental Poetry and Visual Arts studio with students to create their artwork for the exhibit. She also hosted a community art workshop at Casita Feliz, a local community organization that promotes health, wellness and various types of support for Latine LGBTQ2+ and other marginalized groups. Casita Feliz is a community partner in this project, as Vargas and Negrete-Lopez worked closely with their staff to bring the artist into the community. 

Finally, an artist talk, panel discussion and a guided tour of the exhibition took place just last week on March 19 at the Fresno State Library.

As this is Gomez’s first time in Fresno, it was a unique experience for her. With the project starting as a conversation around an artist talk, Gomez and the organizers eventually landed on the idea of her exploring Fresno and supporting students through a semester-long artist residency to develop new work. Gomez didn’t want to control the art-making process of participants through these workshops, but rather she wanted students and community members to explore their own ideas.

“As an artist, I didn’t want to come in and tell people what to paint or dictate their ideas,” Gomez said.

Once the student-centered workshop started, Gomez was able to go around the room to ask questions about students’ work, taking in the experiences of students who were really inspired as she mentored them through creating artwork on campus. 

Fourth-year student Angelina Flores said that they didn’t exactly view themselves as creative and didn’t really know where to start initially. Titled “Intertwined Possibilities,” their art piece speaks of their identity, experiences and culture.

“My art serves as a site of exploration and healing. Through cultural imagery, I honor my heritage and ancestors,” Flores said. “Ultimately, this piece illustrates the pride and pain of coming to terms with yourself, and that we must not oversimplify the unique experiences of queer Latine community.”

Gomez noted the similar experiences that she and some students went through during the creation process of starting and being unsure of how to create artwork that speaks of their experiences and identities. 

In this exploration of Fresno, Gomez used the residency to highlight the various LGBTQ2+ and allied spaces in Fresno within her new works, specifically focusing on the Tower District, a historical site for the LGBTQ2+ community who have served as patrons at businesses like Ming’s Restaurant and Chase Flower Shop.

“I am excited to have their work displayed alongside mine,” Gomez said. “Community building is what the intentions are, and I definitely felt the need to be present as a trans artist to display my work, but I also open that platform for others.”

An important element of the exhibition is the display of the Lady Diana and El Daña archival pieces, which were shared with Gomez, Vargas and Negrete-Lopez during their conversations with both individuals to highlight their significance, presence, support and advocacy of the LGBTQ2+ community.

Lady Diana Oliva, who is the founder and CEO of Casita Feliz, and Elsie Saldaña, who is popularly known as El Daña and who holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest living and still performing drag king in the world. Both figures have contributed so much to the LGBTQ2+ community and are prominent icons in advocacy work across the Central Valley LGBTQ2+ community.

Alongside these archival pieces, Gomez created individual large-scale portraits of the two on cardboard featuring things that they each love and that showcase their identities. 

Lady Diana, who opened up Casita Feliz to LGBTQ2+ Programs and Services to host the community art workshop led by Gomez, Vargas, and Negrete-Lopez, felt that this was important and special because not very often do trans, nonbinary and gender expansive people have the opportunity to share their stories through artmaking.

“Through art we are able to demonstrate our stories, struggles, triumphs and milestones, especially during this month of International Transgender Day of Visibility,” Olivia said. “This art exhibit at Fresno State is historic, pioneering and we are blazing the trail for other trans storytellers to use art as a medium to express who they are.”

LGBTQ2+ and allied students and community members are finding spaces of creativity, collaboration, solidarity and community building through the residency and the exhibition, which was created as a result of the community-engaged work of LGBTQ2+ Programs and Services and collaborators like Casita Feliz and LGBTQ2+ Studies.

These spaces are opportunities for change, education and expression for all.

“We also wanted this to land at the end of March for a reason,” Negrete-Lopez said. “Trans Day of Visibility and Women’s History Month both live in this time of year, and it felt important to honor that, to bring everything together in a moment that already means something to our community. We wanted to uplift Jay Lynn’s work, and we wanted it to feel connected to something bigger than just a single event on a calendar.”

In combining student art, community art, her new art and the archives of prominent queer elders, Gomez, Vargas and Negrete-Lopez defined the art exhibit as a community collaboration with different generations of LGBTQ+ and allied people from all walks of life who have a shared experience of living and surviving in the Central Valley.

The exhibition is open to all from March 19-27, so come experience the wonderful creative pieces from Jay Lynn Gomez, Fresno State students and community members, as well as witness the personal archival pieces from Lady Diana and El Daña.