On December 10, 2010, FIERCE’s Art Crew held a launch event for Queer Pier, 40 Years.  The event, entitled Queer Pier, 40 Years: (re)Envisioning LGBTQ Stories, brought together dozens of artists, community members, youth, organizers, and supporters to celebrate FIERCE’s new arts initiative. 

Throughout the evening, participants explored the intersections of art and organizing through community dialogue and interactive art projects.  The event provided a space for community members to watch footage from FIERCE’s archive and view works by some of the Queer Pier collaborating artists, including a special presentation by Randal Wilcox from the Alvin Baltrop Trust and a screening by Parallel Lines of their video collaboration with FIERCE members in the West Village.  Marvin Taylor, Director and Associate Curator of the Fales Library and Special Collections at NYU, gave a short presentation about archiving and announced FIERCE’s collaboration to share pieces of the organization’s archive with the Downtown Collection, the largest collection of materials related to the Downtown New York art scene and only collection of its kind in an academic library.

The event also included a live performance by Jacolby Satterwhite and a musical throwback celebration with DJ Helen Harris.