Curator June T. Sanders, alongside five other artists, has organized a collaborative exhibition titled "Devotions" that challenges the contemporary art world's dismissal of rural artists. The show, opening June 5 at Kolva-Sullivan Gallery in Spokane, blends folk art with queer identity and spirituality, featuring works by Jeffry Mitchell, Adrienne Economos Miller, Rachel Svinth, Elva Bennett, and Abigail Hansel. The centerpiece is a single collaborative altar project that explores themes of heart, home, and ritual, drawing on Sanders' own experience of being told she had to move to a city to embrace her queer identity.
The exhibition matters because it directly confronts biases in the art world that marginalize rural and queer artists, asserting that folk art and spiritual practices are valid forms of contemporary expression. By centering an altar as the collaborative focus, the show reclaims religious and communal rituals for LGBTQ+ people who often have complicated relationships with organized religion. It also challenges stereotypes about where queer people belong, affirming that rural life and spirituality can be integral to queer identity and community-building.