The U.K.’s first national LGBTQ+ museum is set to open its doors as institutions around the world expand resources to document queer history and culture.
A new museum founded by the charity organization Queer Britain will reportedly include four galleries, a workshop, an education space and a gift shop, according to a public statement posted to its website on Saturday. The museum is set to open its doors in the spring, and Queer Britain has promised that it will be free of charge and fully accessible to people with disabilities.
The museum will be located in Kings Cross, a hub for north London’s queer scene during the 1980s. The neighbourhood was the site of several underground bars and clubs, as well as vibrant LGBTQ+ activism during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. (Pet Shop Boys paid tribute to Kings Cross in a 1987 song of the same name.)
Emphasizing the need for a greater focus on LGBTQ+ history, Queer Britain co-founder, Joseph Galliano, said the district’s queer roots make it a “prime location” for an undertaking of this kind.
“It’s time the U.K. had an LGBTQ+ museum, for all,” Galliano said in a statement. “We are delighted to have found our first home in beautiful Granary Square with Art Fund as our first landlord. It’s a prime location, accessible to swathes of the country, and in a part of town with a rich Queer heritage.”
While the museum will be the first of its kind in the U.K., it is not Britain’s only space devoted to the rich political and cultural heritage of LGBTQ+ people.
The National Museums of Liverpool, the University of Cambridge and the British Museum have recently taken steps to improve their LGBTQ+ history archive, according to The Guardian newspaper. Since 2015, these museums have launched new collections, exhibitions and research projects to preserve and exhibit historical artifacts documenting same-sex desire and gender nonconformity throughout history.
Such information is often suppressed, according to LGBTQ+ scholars. With archives like Queer Britain providing a more exhaustive look at queer history and culture, many have expressed the need for more institutions focused on preserving LGBTQ+ history and culture.
“Almost every museum has at least one themed event to celebrate LGBTQ+ lives but when we investigate this work, we often find transitory conversations around queer culture that rarely extend beyond the ephemeral,” wrote Myla Corvidae, co-director of the online LGBTQ+ history resource Queer Heritage Forum, in an op-ed for the Museum Association’s website last June.
Queer Britain’s initiative comes at a time of increased awareness of the contributions of LGBTQ+ people across the globe. It is also indicative of a continued effort to better reflect the history’s intersectionality.
New York City’s oldest museum, the New York Historical Society (NYHS), announced last June that it would be expanding to incorporate the city’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture. Dubbed The American LGBTQ+ Museum, the soon-to-be foundation is part of the NYHS’ 70,000-foot, five-story expansion project for its building on Central Park West and plans to open its doors in 2024.
Ben Garcia, former deputy executive director and chief learning officer of Ohio History Connection, was announced as the museum’s executive director last week.
“I’ve spent 20 years working in museums dedicated to ensuring that they are places that work for everybody’s self-discovery, that welcome everybody, that are working with paradigms of inclusion and equity,” Garcia told the New York Times. “We’re so excited to be able to fill the picture out, to make sure that this is a multicultural, multilingual experience of queerness, LGBTQ+ identity.”
Other institutions dedicated to preserving LGBTQ+ art, culture and history across the U.S. include the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City, San Francisco’s GLBT History Museum in San Francisco, Chicago’s Leather Archives & Museum and the Chris Gonzalez Library & Archives in Indianapolis.
In Canada, the University of Western Ontario’s Pride Library and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto are notable archives for LGBTQ+ resources.
Why you can trust Xtra
