Queer Artistry and its Legacies at SMFA: An Alumni Panel

Join Tufts University Art Galleries in collaboration with the SMFA Office of Development and Alumni Engagement for an alumni panel featuring Cameron Barker (MFA ‘20), Marla McLeod (MFA '20), Ryan Leitner (MFA '16), and Anthony Peyton Young (MFA '17). Panelists will discuss their multi-faceted practices as queer artists, writers, curators, and educators, touching on queer references and histories which have influenced their work, modes of research, chosen media and techniques, and hopes for the future. The panelists will also reflect on their late mentor Danielle Abrams and how she individually impacted their trajectory as creatives. Abrams’ work is featured in SMFA at 150: Looking Back.

Cameron Barker (he/they) shares his time between New York, Boston and New Haven as a multi-disciplinary artist, curator and educator whose work examines the cultural hegemonies that exist within systems of realism while platforming queer bodies, histories and intimacy. Born in Longmont, Colorado, Barker received a BA in art education from The University of Northern Colorado and a MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts atTufts. His work has been shown internationally including at the Musée des Cultures du Monde in Nicolet Canada, the 2026 International Fine Prints andDrawings Association Fair at the Armory in New York City, and recently curated the exhibition Little Birds and Our Daily Prayers featuring thirteen queer artists including himself at the Locker Room Gallery in New York City. His work implements Western traditional rendering techniques and materials, such as the Bargue Drawing Method, intaglio printmaking practices and metalpoint, to represent queer bodies which have been historically omitted from these visual languages. Barker has been recognized as a Post-Graduate Fellow in curation atTufts University, a Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Artist Fellow, an awardee of the Room 68 Artist residency (Provincetown, MA), the Maisonette Queer ArtistResidency (San Francisco, CA), a Stone Hill Press Printmaking Residency (WoburnMA), a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and editor of theBoston Printmakers Quarterly with print editions represented by Caira Editions (Cambridge, MA). He has taught at Yale University, Northeastern University and will be teaching at MassArt in the Fall semester.

Marla L. McLeod explores identity and social constructs within Black communities through her curation, as well as working as a portrait painter, textile artist, and sculptor. Currently a Wagner Foundation Studio Resident at the Boston Center for the Arts, McLeod opened her first solo museum exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio in 2023 asthe Aminah Robinson Resident Artist.  Her artwork has been exhibited in spaces such as the deCordova Museum Triennial, Boston City Hall, Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, MI, Black Portraitures at NYU, Highlander Movement School, TN, and Columbia College in SC. 

She began her curatorial role in 2020 working on the Area Code Art fair in Boston, MA and her 2025 curatorial project “Weaving: an Address” with Umbrella Arts, celebrated the Black history of Concord, MA. Her latest project featuring the work of Craig Cromartie opens at Show Up Gallery in Boston, MA in September of 2026.

McLeod began her teaching career as an adjunct professor immediately after receiving her MFA from the SMFA where she was a Post-Teaching Graduate Fellow in 2020.  She has since taught at institutions such as MIT and Boston College in MA, MECAD in ME, andSCSU in CT.  She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Southern Connecticut State University in CT and facilitates the Art Therapy program with New Beginnings Re-Entry Services in Boston, MA.

Ryan Leitner (b. 1986) lives and works in New Orleans. He received his M.F.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and his B.F.A. from Regent’s American College of London.  His work has been exhibited nationally at the Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, Ferrara Showman Gallery, Locker Room NYC, and many others. He also has spoken at the New Orleans Museum of Art, published in The Advocate, and has participated in residencies such as Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Joan Mitchell Residency. As part of one of his ongoing projects, Strange Inheritance, he has restored and created monuments that commemorate queer histories and culture such as the Up Stairs Lounge Fire of 1973 plaque he remade in 2025 after its theft. These efforts inform his studio practice through the stories and individuals unearthed in his research and activism.

Anthony Peyton Young is an artist born in Charleston, WV. Working primarily in painting, drawing, ceramics, and collage, Young explores methods of memorializing, queer identity, family and community rituals, and intimacy. He earned his B.A. from West Virginia State University and his M.F.A. from School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.Young has won awards such as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts TravelingFellowship and the Walter Feldman Fellowship for Emerging Artist. His work is included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Simmons University, and Juliette Art Museum. He has also been featured in publications such as Gay Letter, New American Painting, Evergreen Review, and The Boston Globe. Young has presented his work at Simmons University, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Cherry Grove Community House & Theater, and Harvard’s Black Portraiture Conference.