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LONDON'S FIRST LGBTQ+ MUSEUM OPENS NEXT WEEK

Granary Square will play host to history-making celebration of queer culture

London will welcome its first EVER dedicated LGBTQ+ museum on Thursday May 5, when part of the Granary Square development in Kings Cross is given over to charity, Queer Britain.

The space in Granary Square 2 will celebrate the capital’s important place in queer history, with a schedule of changing exhibitions across its four galleries. The opening show, simply titled Welcome to Queer Britain, will feature photographs and artefacts from the charity’s archives alongside work from Sadie Lee and Paul Harfleet.

Sadie is an award-winning figurative painter whose work explores the representation of women in art, sexuality, gender and the ageing body. Her past work has included ‘A Dying Art: Ladies of the Burslesque,’ in which she painted fifteen former American burlesque dancers who were now elderly and retired; and ‘He was She,’ a collection of paintings of drag queen, Holly Woodlawn, who was immortalised in Lou Reed’s song, Walk on the Wild Side.

Paul Harfleet is the artist behind The Pansy Project, an activist movement which since 2005 has planted pansies at the sites of homophobic attacks around the world.

He often films his work, documenting the stories behind the attacks and the locations at which they occurred, before planting the flowers as a mark of respect and defiance.

He released his autobiography, Pansy Boy in 2018 and the book closes with a series of hand-drawn birds, which have now become a central part of his art.

Entrance to Queer Britain will be free and the charity’s website will detail all upcoming projects in the new space.