LGBTQ+ Bloedd Projects
Ours To Tell
3 Amgueddfa Cymru producers were hired to work on an oral history exhibition exploring the stories of different LGBTQ+ people living in Wales today and the objects that they connect to. The exhibition opens March 2024 in Swansea waterfront museum.
The Future Is Fungal
‘The Future Is Fungal’ is an ESRC funded research project in collaboration with Kate Marston at Cardiff university. The project consisted of regular meetings over 2022/23 with a group of young LGBTQ+ people. The sessions were a combination of creative, practical, and educational sessions exploring the science of fungi, its connection to identity and the queer community. A day event was implemented which was open to young LGBTQ+ people, dedicated to sharing what had been explored on the project so far. The ACPs delivered talks on the history of fungi and colonialism, providing badge-making workshops, creative writing and model-making experiences.
In the words of Kate Marston fungi are abundant micro-organisms that have been historically overlooked. Described as the earth’s natural internet, underground networks of fungal hyphae facilitate ‘social networking’ between plants and enable them to communicate about threats in the environment. For a long time, little was understood about the vast ecological contribution of fungi because they were seen as 'lower plants' that displayed little fixed sexuality. It is rare for a fungus to have only two biological sexes, and some fungi, such as the split gill, have as many as 23,000 distinct sexual identities.
This project invites you to investigate the fascinating world of fungi to consider how the social and sexual diversity of nature changes the way we think about our own relationships. Through a series of creative and participatory workshops, you will explore the fungal archives at the national museum of Wales as well as engage with experts in fungal ecology in order to consider how thinking-with fungi might inspire you to re-imagine the future of networked communication, gender and sexuality. Findings from this study will inform a report about thinking-with fungi in relationships and sexuality education.
“There’s lots of connections between fungi and queerness. From a queer ecology point of view fungi breaks gender norms, they don’t conform to binary categorisation, they are fluid and can have countless variations of sexes. The mycelium network, which is how all the fungi connects and feeds other plants, is also a great metaphor for the way that the queer community’s network of support and sharing of resources work. Fungi is also super resilient and can survive extreme environments which I think is really relatable to a lot of queer people.” ACP
Proud Writing
Hosted by Welsh historian and writer Norena Shopland, these free workshops invited queer writers of any age to read between the lines, examine historical records of Welsh queer history and create their own pieces of writing based on them. Following the workshops, an event will be hosted for all attendees to come together and celebrate their work.
Queer Tours
Join Oska and reg, two Amgueddfa Cymru producers, on a queer tour of St Fagans national museum of history. The tour takes you to all the objects and spaces in the museum surrounding queer Welsh history, giving insight into their context and significance. It aims to provide narrative and visibility to the social history of the LGBTQ+ people in Wales. You can now watch the digital version of the queer tour with Oska and Reg here: