LGBT Archive and Exhibition for Plymouth

The

city of Plymouth is planning to explore its gay history over the next

twelve months courtesy of the Plymouth Pride Forum, an independent

voluntary organisation that campaigns for better support for Plymouth’s

lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities. The organisation was set

up in 1998 and aims to improve the lives of members of the LGBT community

within Plymouth by voicing their needs and identifying gaps in service

provision whilst empowering them to become involved in community life

and be consulted about the things that affect them.

The

idea of the archive was born from the fact that much of Plymouth’s LGBT

history is currently stored in the memories of the older proportion of

our community and the plan is to take this opportunity to capture their

memories and stories now. The forum aims to investigate lesbian, gay,

bisexual and transgender history in Plymouth, in collaboration with the

Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, and create an archive to access,

frame and interpret Plymouth’s queer histories. With support and

training from the records office, the forum volunteers will be working

primarily as oral historians and community archivists. They will

interview members of the LGBT community about their experiences in and

concerning Plymouth, as well as collecting photographs and other

documents and memorabilia while recording recollections of older members

of the community who wish to share their memories of places, people and

events.

With

the aid of funding recently received from the Heritage Lottery Fund,

the archive will form the basis of an exhibition in early 2012, at

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.

Volunteers will be offered the

opportunity to help curate the exhibition and also create new materials,

which reflect where our community is today and also how we see it

developing in the future.

Plymouth Pride Forum are currently looking at setting up working parties for individual projects, which will contribute to the archive as a whole.

These groups will be concerned with

(i) formation of the online archive

(ii) photography

(iii) oral history recording

(iv) researching the city’s archives

(v) the exhibition

(vi) promotional material around the project and exhibition.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the forum please check out http://www.plymouthprideforum.org.uk.

If you’d like to find out more about the archive project, or volunteer for one of the working parties, visit:

 http://www.lgbt-history.prideinplymouth.org.uk/ 

From the site you can subscribe to receive a weekly eNews bulletin direct to your inbox a service kindly provided by our communication partner Pride in Plymouth.

Or email directly to info@plymouthprideforum.org.uk