Make history at Queer Times School

Help us shape history at queer timɘs school, an art and citizenship project commissioned by the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)!

Article Source: Glasgow Museums
Last Updated: 19 June 2018 14:29

Do you wish that you had learned about Scotland’s queer times at school? Do you believe that more LGBTPQI+A* community histories should be represented in museum collections?

queer timɘs school is an opportunity for LGBTPQI citizens - and their allies - to participate in history-making by chronicling some of the complex controversies, breakthroughs and experiences that have shaped queer Scottish life over the past 50 years. It is for those who feel that their daily experience, or a specific experience, however small it may seem, has been uncharted or unrecognised.

Led by the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), the project Queer Times received £9,100 in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Sharing Heritage grant to respond to the complex coalescence of a number of significant LGBT+ anniversaries in 2018: the 30th anniversary of the introduction of Section 28, and the end of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales (1967) – which also paradoxically marks the beginning of the 13 year wait for Scotland to partially decriminalise homosexuality, in 1980.

The queer timɘs school project will be led by artist Jason E Bowman and will culminate in new work for an exhibition to be held at GoMA later this year. The Queer Times project, exhibition and public programme has been carefully developed by GoMA over 18 months, in discussion with artists Ajamu Ikwe-Tyehimba and Jason E Bowman, alongside various LBGT organisations, associations and academics.

queer timɘs school will take the form of a week-long series of rolling, hour-long assemblies from 23-27 July 2018, where participants can share their obscured and marginalised histories of the past 50 years, particularly regarding education, housing, employment, law and health. Assemblies will take place in supportive environments across Glasgow’s museums, libraries, and archives; at the Glasgow School of Art, and the City Chambers. People can register to take part via the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/queer-tims-school-tickets-46711955717

On Saturday 4 August a panel of 12 LGBPTQI+A citizens will deliberate which of these stories should be told in a set of ten printed works that will enter Glasgow Museums’ collection. These will be exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) from 1 December 2018 -10 March 2019, and a second set will be available annually to be borrowed by secondary schools in Glasgow.

Participants are being asked to share and/or listen to examples of challenges experienced by people from the LGBTPQI+A* community over the past 50 years, including the fights against exclusion and for rights and equality; organising campaigns and protests; grass-roots and community-led care and support systems; experiences of housing, the workplace, education and law; scene histories and non-scene lifestyles; forms of friendship and ‘alternative’ families; meet-ups, hook-ups, coupling and splitting up; types of resistance including to being co-opted; and how LGBTPQI communities have co-organised.

Councillor David McDonald, the Chair of Glasgow Life and Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “queer timɘs school aims to recognise the important heritage of LGBTPQI+A people as organisers, campaigners, shape-shifters, and change-makers in our communities.

These assemblies offer a respectful environment for people to come together and have their voices heard. You don’t need any qualifications to take part, and we encourage everyone interested in the project to join in and to share their stories in an informal, convivial and supportive setting.

This is also a fantastic opportunity for those interested in learning more about the work of Glasgow Museums, as archivists, conservators, curators and other staff from Glasgow Museums and local organisations will be present to explain and discuss how museum collections function as forms of history and heritage-making.”

Three information sessions are scheduled for those interested in taking part in queer timɘs school:
Monday 25 June from 1pm-2.30pm in the Studio at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)
Monday 25 June from 6pm-7.30pm at Principal Seminar Room 1, The Glasgow School of Art, Reid Building
Tuesday 26 June from 6pm-7.30pm at Principal Seminar Room 1, The Glasgow School of Art, Reid Building

To attend one of these information sessions, register your overall interest, or ask questions, please Katie Bruce, Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Royal Exchange Square, 0141 287 3051, katie.bruce@glasgowlife.org.uk.

[*LGBTPQIA = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Polysexual, Queer, Intersex + Allies]