RESIDENCIES + PROGRAMMING

The Queer Culture Arts Foundation (QCAF) exists to create and sustain spaces for queer creative life. Through residencies, programs, publications, and gatherings, we honor our histories while dreaming forward. Some of these initiatives are already active. Others are being built. And some live just on the horizon—waiting for the right partners, resources, or moment to come to life.

At QCAF, our residencies and programs reflect where we’ve been, what we’re holding, and what we’re reaching toward.
This page brings together our growing network of cultural initiatives—some already in motion, others in active development, and many still unfolding. Each reflects a part of our mission to preserve queer histories, activate creative futures, and offer space for experimentation, reflection, and joy. Whether rooted in home, publication, ritual, or education, these projects are living systems. We are building, nurturing, and imagining—together.

Current Initiatives

  • The Naughty Pine - QCAF House

    QCAF Residency Site 001 | Fire Island Pines

    The original home of QCAF, Fire Island Tea, and its ongoing heart. The Naughty Pine is where it all began—hosting artists, community events and programming, and ideation sessions that fuel the foundation's evolution. A site of refuge, celebration, and creative fire. We will continue to refine, reimagine, and expand what this living home can offer—incubating new ideas, nurturing emerging voices, and anchoring our collective work in care, joy, and possibility.

    Status: Ongoing | Residency + Community Hub

  • The Paul McGregor – Bamboo House Residency

    QCAF Residency Site 002 | Fire Island Pines

    An intimate residency honoring the celebrated hairstylist and artist Paul McGregor. Located in the historic, Horace Gifford-designed 573 Coastguard House, this program supports artists exploring memory and personal history as catalysts for creativity. Stewarded by Paul’s granddaughter, August, the residency continues his legacy while carving space for contemporary creators. Her vision and leadership not only preserve the cultural weight of the home but also reflect the transformative impact this foundation can have across generations.

    Status: Invitation-based

  • The Visitors Center

    QCAF Public Outpost | Fire Island Pines

    Our public home in the Pines—a cultural gateway that houses the Gallery, the Shop, and the Serve, and his the home of Fire Island Tea. It hosts exhibitions, artist launches, archival displays, and programs that center queer creativity and commerce. As a welcoming space for residents and visitors alike, the Visitors Center reflects our belief that culture, care, and community should be visible, accessible, and celebrated.

    Status: Ongoing | Cultural Hub + Retail + Exhibition Space

  • Fire Island Tea

    QCAF Editorial Platform | Fire Island Pines

    A storytelling platform and print publication that serves as QCAF’s living archive. Fire Island Tea documents queer memory through archiving, writing, photography, and editorial. With each edition, we aim to capture the textures of queer life—from Fire Island and beyond—spotlighting untold histories, intimate reflections, and radical acts of expression. It is both a platform for new voices and a vessel of cultural preservation.

    Status: Ongoing | Publication + Archiving Tool

  • Books and Boys

    QCAF Literary Club | Multi-City

    Founded in 2018, this queer social club builds chosen family through literature, discussion, and celebration of queer voices. What began as an intimate gathering around books has grown into a movement—hosting reading groups, author events, and community dinners across cities and seasons, always with the intention of connection, reflection, and queer kinship.

    Status: Paused | Seeking Support

  • Pines Artwalk

    QCAF Public Art Project | Fire Island Pines

    Revived in 2020 in response to the isolation of COVID, Pines Art Walk honors one of the earliest visual arts traditions on Fire Island. Originally active from the 1970s to the early ’80s, the event once transformed Fire Island Boulevard into a makeshift gallery. It laid the groundwork for what would later become the FIPAP Biennial Art Show—bridging generations of local artists and marking a foundational chapter in the Pines’ creative legacy. Today, the reimagined Pines Artwalk invites artists to exhibit throughout the Pines in an open-air, decentralized format—rekindling a beloved cultural ritual and making queer art accessible to all.

    Status: Seasonal Activation | Public Exhibition Series

In Development

  • The Tom Arts Residency

    With the Tom of Finland Foundation | QCAF Residency Site 004

    Affirming the erotic as a sacred and radical site of queer expression, this residency connects the legacies of Los Angeles and Fire Island through creative work rooted in sensuality, resistance, and liberation.

    Status: In development

  • The Winter Residency

    QCAF Seasonal Residency | Fire Island Pines

    A seasonal artist residency designed to activate Fire Island Pines during the off-season. It provides selected creatives with space, time, and solitude to produce work in a uniquely quiet version of the island—turning winter into a time of reflection, production, and growth.

    Status: In development | Seeking home partners + support.

  • The Winterization Project

    QCAF Infrastructure Initiative | Fire Island Pines

    An infrastructure initiative that enables The Winter Residency by funding the winterization of otherwise seasonal homes. In exchange, homeowners commit to offering their property for five years of artist residencies. The project extends queer cultural life into the off-season while preserving and activating Pines architecture year-round.

    Status: Seeking property owners, sponsors, and local contractors.

Future Planning

  • The Neary Center for Queer History + Living Culture

    QCAF Residency Site 003 | Fire Island Pines

    A proposed living center and community hub named in honor of Gil Neary. The Neary Center will serve as a site of preservation and activation—hosting residencies, public programs, and exhibitions rooted in queer memory, performance, and home-making.

    Status: Seeking funding, preservation partners, and visionary collaborators.

  • Fire Island Fashion Week

    QCAF Cultural Platform | Fire Island Pines

    A queer fashion platform built outside the traditional system. FIFW honors the defiant style legacy of the Pines while making space for new voices in resort, swim, and capsule collections. Inspired by the fashion shows of the 1970s–80s and the creative lives lost to AIDS, FIFW reclaims fashion as queer storytelling.

    Anticipated Launch: 2026

  • Educational Programs + Workshops

    QCAF Educational Vision | Fire Island Pines (Emerging)

    Informed by our own participation in creative institutions and rooted in queer experience, this initiative envisions a future educational platform blending art, design, and cultural study. These workshops, artist talks, and skill-sharing sessions will provide space for queer makers, thinkers, and storytellers to teach, exchange, and build together. Grounded in lineage and liberation, these programs are designed to pass on sacred knowledge, spark collaboration, and expand access to queer education year-round.

    Anticipated Launch: 2025–2026