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Queer Heritage and Collections Network

@queerhcn.org
2.3K followers 35 following 60 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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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 17/09/2026
We are also launching a LinkedIn group alongside tickets. The group is a space to meet other attendees, share projects and ideas, and start conversations before and during the event, with the opportunity to continue connecting afterwards. Link to join: www.linkedin.com/groups/36110...
QHCN Members Hub logo
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 17/09/2026
📢 BOOKINGS NOW OPEN! 📢 Bookings now open for the upcoming QHCN Symposium, exploring the innovative queer heritage work being developed by cultural organisations across the UK and beyond 📆 10-11 November Day 1: Online Day 2: Online and in-person (Univ. of Leicester) Links below ⬇
Banner for Queer Heritage and Collections Network Symposium 2026
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 25/06/2026
📣 Call for Papers: QHCN Symposium 2026 🗓️ 10-11 Nov 2026 We're inviting proposals from heritage professionals, researchers, artists & community organisers working with queer collections, stories & spaces. 📥 Deadline: 14 Aug 2026 📌 Full details & how to apply: queerhcn.org/symposiums/s...
Banner image: Queer Heritage and Collections Network Symposium 2026, with QHCN logo and several images from past conferences
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 31/03/2026
Our latest newsletter celebrating Trans Day of Visibility came out today! You can read the full version here: us14.campaign-archive.com?u=f997f858bd...
Screenshot from QHCN newsletter with covers from "New resources from the Trans-Inclusive Culture project"
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 26/11/2025
That's a wrap on the Queer Heritage and Collections Symposium 2025! #QHCN2025 Thank you so much to those of you who managed to attend the event in person today! Just a reminder that the recordings of all presentations across the two days will be available on queerhcn.org within the next few weeks.
QHCN Symposium 2025 BannerConference room with people sitting in the audience and two presenters on stagePeople crafting around a table full of magazine and book clippings TV screen with a Teams call and a slide featuring artwork from the Villiers Revealed project
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 25/11/2025
Thank you so much for attending today's Symposium! Whether you were attending in person or online, we are so grateful for your enthusiastic support and input! 🌈 #QHCN2025
People around a table covered in books, magazines and crafting materials
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 25/11/2025
We are just getting started at the Queer Heritage and Collections Symposium 2025! Looking forward to an exciting day of presentations, networking and badge making #QHCN2025
Room full of people sitting down around tables in front of a screen and a lectern
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 02/10/2025
📢 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
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 19/09/2025
📢 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
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 26/06/2025
📣 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."
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 16/06/2025
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.
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 16/06/2025
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.
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 20/05/2025
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
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 19/05/2025
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.
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 13/05/2025
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)
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 12/05/2025
🏳️‍🌈 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
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 25/03/2025
📅 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.
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Queer Heritage and Collections Network @queerhcn.org · 03/03/2025
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.
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