In 2022, The Center on Colfax received a grant from The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Telling the Full History Preservation Fund, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant allowed The Center to work with a state program, Colorado Virtual Library, to permanently archive our collection of 115 oral histories and make them publicly searchable and available to researchers nationwide via our website. The grant also allowed us to begin creating our first digital catalog for the Terry Mangan Memorial Library, making the LGBTQ+ books in our physical collection accessible to a wider audience.

In February, we created a new history exhibition spotlighting the work of women activists from the LGBTQ+ community in recognition of Women’s History Month. The activists spotlighted in the exhibition were women who advocated for voting rights, disability rights, reproductive rights, and more, helping to reshape our country with a deeper understanding of gender and justice. This exhibition was installed in the lobby of The Center.

In 2023, we plan to continue work on our online historical archive and our digital catalog. We hope to bolster these resources so they will be user-friendly, easily searchable, robust sources that educate the community on LGBTQ+ history and share the work of LGBTQ+ authors. We will also continue our collection efforts of LGBTQ+ oral histories, with special focus on hearing the stories of more black, brown, Indigenous, and gender diverse people.