Eulogy for the Dyke Bar is a multi-year project with installations and public programming to honor the complex role and histories that dyke bars have played for the larger queer community. The project acknowledges that many are now gone due to factors like gentrification, assimilation, gender-based income disparity, and perhaps changing needs in the community. Current estimates are that less than thirty remain throughout the United States, and similar trends are happening in other countries. The project offers an opportunity to discuss all of this, as well as to celebrate dyke culture and create meaningful and inclusive queer and trans space. Eulogy for the Dyke Bar is about thinking of our community both on and beyond, the dance floor and what collective liberation can look like while also honoring our queer histories.

The 2023 edition of Eulogy for the Dyke Bar was a satellite project commissioned by University of New South Wales Galleries and co-presented with the National Art School in association with Sydney WorldPride, on unceded Gadigal land. The installation incorporated a café and operating bar and functioned as an active community space for performances, cruising, karaoke, and conversations with organizers of queer parties and spaces throughout the city. The walls were covered in ephemeral and archival materials from bygone lesbian nights, parties, and bars in Sydney and offered a bulletin board for people to add their own to the collection. Programs were supported by the City of Sydney and Museums and Galleries NSW.

The project reclaims the term ‘dyke’ in its most expansive sense and recognizes that gender and identities are complex and fluid. The ‘bar’ is open to anyone who identifies with, or feels an allyship with, the dyke part of the queer spectrum in the past, present, or future.