LA Artists Parade Handmade Vulva Costumes in Community Celebration

Community Art and Sex Education Intersect

On Saturday, August 15, the First Congregational Church of Long Beach hosted the second annual Vulva Gala, organized by the School of Sexuality Project. Approximately 30 artists from the Los Angeles area paraded down the aisle wearing homemade giant vulva costumes, each uniquely designed to reflect personal expression and lived experiences. The event drew around 400 guests, underscoring its growing role as a community-centered celebration.

Founded in 2020 by Bridgett Khoury, a queer Palestinian-Mexican mother of three, the School of Sexuality Project aims to shift sex education away from dry, medical lectures toward a festival-symposium style that builds community. "We center humor and art in order to make an uncomfortable subject a little bit more approachable," Khoury said in an interview. The gala is a key part of that mission, using art as a bridge to destigmatize human anatomy.

Khoury's father hand-sews each vulva costume in a diverse range of skin tones and shapes, serving as the anatomical base for artists to decorate. This year, the project distributed these blank canvases to artists in February, inviting them to tell their stories. Some artists adorned their costumes with piercings, embracing self-expression, while others used their outfits to call out injustices, including ICE violence against pregnant women.

Art as a Vehicle for Social Commentary

The gala exemplifies how art can transform a potentially awkward subject into a platform for dialogue and activism. By giving artists creative freedom, the project enabled them to address pressing social issues in a visually striking way. "Giving these blank canvases to artists gave them the opportunity to tell their story," Khoury said. The result was a parade that mixed humor, identity, and protest, turning the church aisle into a runway of personal and collective narratives.

This event highlights a broader trend in community-based art projects that merge education with creative expression. For collectors and art professionals, it underscores the growing significance of participatory and socially engaged art, where the process of creation is as important as the final object. The Vulva Gala, while unconventional, demonstrates how art can foster community dialogue and challenge societal taboos.

The Vulva Gala shows how community-centered art projects can blend humor and activism to make difficult subjects approachable, a model that resonates beyond the art world.

As the School of Sexuality Project continues to expand, its approach offers lessons in how art institutions and educators can engage audiences in meaningful, non-traditional ways. The success of this event—drawing 400 attendees and featuring dozens of artists—suggests a appetite for experiential and inclusive art programming. For now, the vulva costumes have become symbols of empowerment, education, and artistic freedom, proving that even the most unconventional canvases can carry powerful messages.