Out and About: Queering the Museum
Out and About: Queering the Museum will reveal and celebrate the rich LGBTQ+ heritage embedded in the collections at RAMM. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer history can be found in the museum’s collections in areas such as zoology, anthropology, fine art, and local and overseas archaeology, but it is not visible at the moment. Curators and engagement specialists at RAMM will work together with Dr Jana Funke from the University of Exeter and socially engaged artist and writer Natalie McGrath to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities in the South West to uncover, create and share existing and new LGBTQ+ heritage at the museum.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community will work with Dr Funke and McGrath to interpret the collections in order to reveal untold LGBTQ+ stories. These will be shared through special events and performances, an online trail and website, and a new piece of creative heritage writing by McGrath.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community will engage creatively with diverse museum artefacts and art works through a series of workshops led by Dr Funke and McGrath. As part of an oral history project, individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ will be invited to narrate personal life stories inspired by specific objects in the collections. The stories and objects will be shared on the project website.
McGrath will be a Writer in Residence at RAMM and work with communities to create a range of creative heritage outputs. Through her writing, the currently hidden LGBTQ+ heritage in RAMM’s collections will become visible, allowing audiences to engage with and learn more about sexual and gender diversity in the past and present.
The project so far
You can find out more about all the different elements of project on RAMM’s website and the Out and About: Queering the Museum page, but here are a few highlights.
The Rainbow Trail
In 2019, Jana and Natalie worked with young LGBTQ+ people from X-Plore Youth and he Exeter College LGBTQ+ group to start to queer the RAMM. Over several months they met with the young people and asked them whether they felt their histories and identities were represented in the museum. They also discussed what it would mean to queer the RAMM and why this might be important to them and to others. Based on these conversations, Jana and Natalie selected a number of objects that are on permanent display at the RAMM to raise questions and concerns that matters to the young people. This is how the Rainbow Trail was developed!
The Trail was launched at a RAMM Lates event and then at Exeter Pride 2019! Check out this video to see Natalie and Jana talk about the Rainbow Trail at the Lates event and read this article in the Exeter Observer to find out more about the project.
Exploring the Life and Work of Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards
Judith Ackland (1892-1971) and Mary Stella Edwards (1898-1989) were two English artists and painters. Edwards was also a poet. The two women first met while studying in London and became life partners, spending decades of their lives together in North Devon. Some of their art works, including a series of landscape paintings, are now part of RAMM’s collections.
On 15 July, members of the Out and About: Queering the Museum project team were joined by other researchers and writers to share their insights and examined different aspects of their life and work. An event was hosted by the Out and About: Queering the Museum team and introduced by project co-director Ellie Coleman from RAMM. Writer in Residence at RAMM and project co-director Natalie McGrath presented a creative response. Co-Director Professor Jana Funke and project researcher Emma Wallace presented their work on Ackland’s and Edwards’ life and art, and were joined by Nicole Hickin (Burton Art Gallery and Museum) and Helen Kent (Southampton University), who have researched Ackland and Edwards for many years and shared fascinating insights with us and the audience. The event concluded with a Q&A session.
Permanent Stand + Stare Interactive Exhibition
For the new installation, LGBTQ+ people have been asked to select objects from RAMM’s collections that resonate with them in interviews conducted by the Out and About project team – the University of Exeter’s Professor Jana Funke and socially-engaged writer Natalie McGrath. The installation includes extracts from these interviews, which visitors can explore using an interactive display created by design studio and project collaborators Stand + Stare.
The display is shaped like a butterfly, inspired by the collection of butterflies at the RAMM, as well as the stories which describe transformation, beauty and spreading your wings.
Find out more about this new addition to the museum here.
Picture By Jim Wileman