About this Event
Queer Coffee Link Ups and artist Aaran Sian (they/them) are teaming up to host a Queer Takeover at Melton Carnegie Museum. This is a creative and welcoming workshop inviting LGBTQ+ people to reimagine how queerness shows up in museum spaces, using poetry and collage.
Using gentle writing and collage prompts, we will explore personal and speculative responses to objects in the museum. We will think about queerness, representation, intimacy, desire, power and erasure.
Together we will explore:
- What does it mean to look at an object through a queer lens?
- What stories might be missing, hidden or waiting to be imagined?
What will we do?
Using the museum’s existing collections as a starting point, together we will:
- Explore objects that spark a reaction - curiosity, discomfort, connection, joy or even frustration
- Create personal and speculative interpretations through poetry and collage
- Explore what it means to 'queer' interpretations - through your own personal lens
- Contribute to co-creating alternative labels and responses that make queer presence visible in the museum
This will be a gently guided and creative process. There is no right way to take part, you can write a sentence, create a collage, respond visually, or explore the museum at your own pace.
What to expect
- A safe, welcoming, and expressive space for LGBTQ+ people
- Guided creative prompts using poetry and collage
- Low pressure and safer space
- All materials provided
- Refreshments included
We recognise that museums can feel othering spaces for Queer and Trans people, particularly those who are also Black, Brown and People of Colour. This workshop is held with care and consent. This includes gentle check-ins throughout, inclusive prompts and visual materials, a decolonial approach to making and no pressure to share or participate beyond what feels right for you.
You do not need any previous 'creative experience'. We invite you to come as you are.
This workshop is for anyone interested in exploring identity, intuition and interpretation through creativity and feeling.
Access Information:
- This workshop is free to attend, refreshments and all materials are provided
- Free transport provided from Leicester City Centre to and from the museum
- Please email [email protected] by 23rd February to book transport
If you have any access requirements or questions, feel free to get in touch with us.
About the facilitators:
Queer Coffee is a community space where people from all walks of life come together for reflection, creativity, and connection.
Rooted in Leicester, Queer Coffee's primary purpose is to serve local LGBTQIA+ members, with a particular focus on centring black and brown folks who are often marginalised within both queer and diaspora spaces.
Collaboration, our Link Ups, also sit at the heart of Queer Coffee’s work, having fostered local and national partnerships for bespoke events that respond to specific cultural and community contexts.
Aaran Sian (they/them) is an artist and creative facilitator whose work envisions radical and speculative futures centring Queer and Trans identities. Their work is about holding space for reclaimation, collective liberation and ancestral memory.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Melton Carnegie Museum, Thorpe End, Melton Mowbray, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
