Page header image: Keet Geniza, Bi-Arts Festival, Glory Hole Gallery, 2017.
Images from the Top Left: Original Glory Hole Gallery installation at Glad Day Bookshop, 499 Church Street location in 2017, Artist Chason Yeboah looking into Glory Hole Gallery as a part of her exhibition of crochet dolls at the Glory Hole Gallery installation at the 519 Community Centre, 2024
Images from the Bottom Left: Installation shot of Finn Simard's work as a part of +Hole Pride Show 2017, and artist Mariam Magsi demonstrates Glory Hole Gallery at Glad Day Bookshop.
Photo Credit: Emily PeltierÂ
History
Glory Hole Gallery is the world’s first, and only, 2SLGBTQ+ micro-gallery celebrating the art, and lived experiences, of 2SLGBTQ+ people.Â
Glory Hole Gallery was originally conceived in 2017 by founders Emily Peltier and Sean MacPherson and installed at the world's oldest 2SLGBTQ+ bookstore in the world, Glad Day Bookshop, at it's previous location in the Village, Toronto, Ontario. Originally, Glory Hole Gallery consisted of eight 12 x 12x 8 1/2 inch box galleries designed and constructed by artist Max Lupo. Art was viewed through an eye hole at the front of the boxes with LED lighting illuminating the works at the push of a button.Â
The name was intentionally chosen for its deep linkages to Queer history and lived experience, referencing necessary anonymous sexual encounters and exposing the oppressive conditions—policing, homophobia, transphobia, racism, whorephobia, and attacks on sex workers’ rights—that made such anonymity essential. The glory hole is a signifier of Queer communities’ creative resistance to violence and censorship—both in society and within art and cultural spaces—and to this day this name remains an unwavering declaration of that resistance.
Over the years, Glory Hole Gallery has been programmed and operated through a collective of Toronto-based artists and curators, including Karina Iskandarsjah and Eric Chengyang, and along with instrumental partnerships with local organizations, galleries, businesses, bathhouses, and generous funding from Toronto Arts Council, Community One Foundation, and, most recently, the Bonham Centre at the University of Toronto.
Today, Glory Hole Gallery is programmed and curated by Emily Peltier and remains committed to radical and Queer sites of resistance and innovation through the arts. Currently this project remains a nomadic micro-museum seeking partnerships and artist exhibiting opportunities around the world.Â
Glory Hole Gallery, 2026, installed in the Reading Room at historic ArQuives in Toronto, Ontario.
Photo Credit: Emily PeltierÂ
Interested in working with Glory Hole Gallery, or about the history? Send a message through the website!Â
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