Queer Heritage and Collections Network
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queerhcn.org
Queer Heritage and Collections Network
@queerhcn.org
2.3K followers 34 following 45 posts
Sharing expertise, skills and best practice on LGBTQ+ heritage 🌈 • UK-wide subject specialist network • Supported by National Lottery through Arts Council England

Contact: qhcncomms@gmail.com
Website: queerhcn.org
Newsletter: mailchi.mp/46de0e53f704/qhcn
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queerhcn.org
📢 REGISTRATIONS OPEN! 📢

Registrations are open for the upcoming QHCN Symposium, exploring the innovative queer heritage work being developed by cultural organisations across the UK and beyond

📆 Date: 25-26 November 2025
📍 Location: National Trust - Heelis

Registration links below ⬇
Decorative Banner: QHCN Symposium 2025 - Registrations Open Logos included: National Trust, Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage, Historic England, RCMG, University of Leicester, Arts Council England
October 2, 2025 at 12:17 PM
queerhcn.org
📢 Upcoming event from The National Archives
📅 Tuesday 23 Sept, 13:00 (UK time)

Queer places: Feelings, emotions & ways of rebuilding intangible heritage 🌈

With Luke Fawcett (Queer Places), Vicky Iglikowski-Broad & Giorgia Tolfo (TNA).

🔗 Sign up via The National Archives website 👇🏻
Banner image: Research Routes - Queer Places: Feeling, emotions and ways of rebuilding intangible heritage
September 19, 2025 at 10:15 AM
queerhcn.org
📣 Call for Papers: QHCN Symposium 2025
🗓️ 25-26 Nov 2025

We're inviting proposals from heritage professionals, researchers, artists & community organisers working with queer collections, stories & spaces.

📥 Deadline: 15 Aug 2025
📌 Full details & how to apply: queerhcn.org/symposiums/symposium-2025
Call for papers banner, with rainbow flags and images of people at a conference. It reads: "We are delighted to invite submissions for the Queer Heritage & Collections Network Symposium 2025. Dates: 25-26 November. Deadline: 15 August."
June 26, 2025 at 12:40 PM
queerhcn.org
Are you more of 19th-century history buff? Then don’t miss PRIDE LECTURE: MISS PIRIE AND MISS WOODS (24 June, 6:30pm)
This evening talk will delve into the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality in early 1800s Edinburgh.
Book a place: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pride-lect...
Decorative Image. Title: Miss Pirie and Miss Woods. An image of a historic building is used as background.
June 16, 2025 at 11:03 AM
queerhcn.org
Pride season is in full swing! 🌈 Are you planning to visit any LGBTQ+ exhibitions or cultural events? Drop your recommendations below 👇 We’ll kick things off!

20 YEARS OF UK BLACK PRIDE, Queer Britain (4 Jun-31 Aug)
The exhibition chronicles the evolution of UK Black Pride: queerbritain.org.uk
Promotional image for "20 Years of UK Black Pride" (opens 4 June). A joyful crowd gathered in front of an outdoor stage, celebrating.
June 16, 2025 at 11:03 AM
queerhcn.org
Thanks to everyone who came to today's session, 'How to: Queer Your Historic House', where we launched Indigo Dunphy-Smith's brilliant toolkit 🌈

The recording of the event will soon be on our website. In the meantime, you can download and share the toolkit here: a-queer-was-here.com/how-to-queer...
Cover image: How to: Queer Your Historic House
May 20, 2025 at 12:51 PM
queerhcn.org
Congratulations to Melton Carnegie Museum and the Culture Leicestershire team for a successful launch of 'Villiers Revealed – We Have Always Been Here', in collaboration with artist Aaran Sian.

We were honoured to attend such a powerful celebration of queer art and the community behind it!
Digital collage print on a gallery wall. Several colourful silhouettes woven together by flowing water motifs and poetry. Villiers Revealed - Exhibition Panel Community Input This exhibition was created through a series of community-led workshops, where LGBTQIA + people explored themes of visibility, identity, community, resistance, and history. Each workshop invited participants to respond creatively, exploring their identities through portraits, collage and poetry, with a focus on reclaiming power and taking up space. In the online poetry workshop, led by Nikita Aaashi Chadha (they/them), participants reflected on fluidity in gender and sexuality historically, across different cultures. This culminated in a collective poem which is layered throughout the space. The collage workshops which were online and in person, led by Aaran Sian (they/them), encouraged participants to explore and reclaim the many parts of queer identity through creating expressive portraits. The collective collage workshop focused on connection and community. The workshops aimed to transform the boundaries of traditional portrait art into an expressive layered tapestry of identity, community and interdependence. Together, these creative processes weave a powerful dialogue where past, present and future overlap. As queer people, we connect to history differently, sometimes searching for traces of ourselves, sometimes creating new stories in the gaps left behind. History is not just something we look back on - it is something we shape, reclaim, and transform in the present and for the future. This exhibition is not an 'end' to this history, nor is it the full story, it is an ongoing conversation about how queer people today connect to the past, reclaim what was lost, and start new conversations to shape the future. Collage on a gallery wall made up of several colourful pieces of fabric, painted cloth, images and poetry.
May 19, 2025 at 12:54 PM
queerhcn.org
Quick reminder that we will be at the #MandHShow tomorrow! Our stand will be X12 (Sector Support Zone)

We are also co-hosting a networking session at 13:00, so please pop by if you are there 👋🌈

Register for a FREE ticket here: museumsandheritage25.smartreg.co.uk/Visitors/Vis...
Museums and Heritage Show, 14-15 May 2025. On a graphic with white business cards: 'A sector for everyone' Wednesday, 14 May, 13:00-13:45. Networking session with the Queer Heritage and Collections Network (co-hosted with Museum Detox)
May 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
queerhcn.org
🏳️‍🌈 Coming up in just over a week!

How to Queer Your Historic House: Toolkit Launch

A resource to help heritage professionals and researchers uncover and integrate queer narratives into historic spaces.

📅 Online | 20 May 2025, 10:00-12:00
🎟️ Free | Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-que...
Banner image: How to Queer Your Historic House: Toolkit Launch by Indigo Dunphy-Smith. In the background, an engraving of Jupiter disguised as Diana seducing Callisto
May 12, 2025 at 9:51 AM
queerhcn.org
📅 SAVE THE DATE! We’re excited to announce that this year’s Symposium will take place on 25-26 November.

▶️ Catch up with recordings from past events: queerhcn.org/symposiums/

🔔 Follow us or join the newsletter to be the first to receive updates about this event: mailchi.mp/46de0e53f704...
Save the Date. This year's QHCN Symposium will take place on 25-26 November 2025. More information coming soon.
March 25, 2025 at 5:02 PM
queerhcn.org
Huge thanks to the Melton Carnegie Museum for hosting our Development Programme cohort last week! 🌈

We had a great time and learned so much from the Villiers Revealed team. Really inspiring to hear about the exhibition and all the work behind it! 🙏
@alisonclague.bsky.social @jonsleigh.bsky.social
Group photo taken inside an exhibition. Several smiling people posing for the photo, surrounded by exhibition panels, in front of a large historic painting. Exhibition panels and display cases. The panel closest to the camera is titled 'Revealing LGBTQ+ and Queer Histories' Two people, Jon Sleigh and Alison Clague, giving a presentation about the Villiers Revealed exhibition in a museum exhibition space.
March 3, 2025 at 2:13 PM