Drag queen art critics return for The Westmoreland's online program

Drag performers know a thing or two about fashion, hair and makeup. Some of them also know a thing or two about fine art.

Through their lush false eyelashes, Pittsburgh-based performers Alora Chateaux and Tootsie Snyder will take a look at works from The Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s permanent collection during a virtual Drag Queen Art Critique at 7 p.m. Nov. 27.

The pair will reprise an event they originated for the museum’s virtual Pride Week programming in July.

“This was a really popular event, so we decided to bring it back as a standalone event for our fall online offerings,” said Claire Ertl, The Westmoreland’s director of marketing and communications.

The program will take a look at 10 artworks organized around a fall and winter theme, including landscapes and portraits. One landscape depicts Pittsburgh’s Panther Hollow, while portraits include the literary character Rip Van Winkle and what Chateaux describes as a “very creepy, intense” dentist caught in the act of pulling a tooth.

“The museum sends the images and we go piece by piece through them in my living room, then I do the editing,” Chateaux said.

“The program definitely has a comedic tone, and the content may have some mature themes,” Ertl said, so it is recommended for viewers 18 and older.

“We’re not making fun, but we’re having fun,” Chateaux said.

One of a kind

Though events such as drag queen bingo, story time and movie critiques have become popular in recent years, this seems to be the only drag art critique around, Chateaux said.

The idea evolved from conversations about Pride Week among museum employees, including public programs manager Mona Wiley.

“Mona has followed my bingos and my drag career,” Chateaux said. “She’s known of me for a very long time.”

Chateaux has organized regular in-person and virtual drag bingo events. Prior to the pandemic shutdown, she and Snyder also did a weekly performance and conversation event at the Blue Moon Bar in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville section.

While those conversations didn’t include art criticism, Chateaux said, both she and Snyder have education in design and art history.

“Mona wanted to get something with drag into the museum for a long time,” Chateaux said. One of the first ideas was a drag queen docent tour that would entail “no knowledge of the art itself, but just taking people around and talking about the art.”

The museum’s pandemic shutdown took Pride Week online, where Ertl said, the first critique garnered about 100 viewers and more than 400 later views on YouTube.

The plan now is to do quarterly critiques, Chateaux said.

Advance registration for the Nov. 27 event is required on the museum website on a pay-what-you-can basis.

Details: 724-837-1500 or thewestmoreland.org