Donated by Kate Marks

The pulp fiction novel Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon was published in 1957. This was the first novel Bannon wrote in the Beebo Brinker Chronicles, and it was the first lesbian pulp fiction book I ever bought. I was inspired to buy it after listening to a talk by historian Dr Amy Tooth Murphy on the golden age of lesbian pulp fiction. Dr Murphy’s talk was the first time I had properly understood the LGBTQ+ history could be possible as an academic field. It helped me to develop a love of historical lesbian fiction and a pride in my own identity.

Queering the Museum: Creating, Uncovering and Celebrating LGBTQ+ Heritage at RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery)

Brief:

We are looking to commission 2 QTIPOC (Queer/Transgender/Intersex People of Colour) performance makers or writers to each create a short digital piece in response to the RAMM collections (https://rammcollections.org.uk). 

The performance piece should also respond to one of the Out and About: Queering the Museum project themes:

• Home, Belonging and Exile
• Fashion/Self-Presentation
• Natural World

Freelance Fee: £1,000 (excl. VAT)

Start: 22^nd March 2021

Location: Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter

The Project:

This commission is part of a 12-month project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Curators and engagement specialists at RAMM will work together with Prof 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 RAMM. LGBTQ+ heritage embedded in the rich collections at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) will be revealed and celebrated as part of this major new collaboration.

As part of this commission, artists will work with Natalie McGrath who is this project’s Writer in Residence and its Creative Heritage Producer, Prof Jana Funke (University of Exeter) and Eleanor Coleman (RAMM).

Creative and dramaturgical support for writing/performance processes will be given by Natalie McGrath.

What are we looking for:

Short digital performance/creative writing pieces between 5 and 10 minutes in duration, to be written and performed by the commissioned artists. The content created will be shared digitally, and commissioned artists will also be asked to speak about the work produced at an online event.

Pieces will be in response to RAMM collections to make visible LGBTQ+ Heritage.

As RAMM is currently closed to the public (due to national lockdown), please check out the collection online: https://rammcollections.org.uk.

Or take a virtual tour here Take a virtual tour – Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter (rammuseum.org.uk)

The response could be about a single object with the idea of re-writing its story through a queer or trans lens, or highlighting a different perspective on the collections.

Work from our other artist commissions can be viewed here:

• Caleb Parkin | Out and About (exeter.ac.uk)
• Oren Shoesmith | Out and About (exeter.ac.uk)
• Charice Bhardwaj and Carina Miles | Out and About (exeter.ac.uk)

How to apply:

Please submit an expression of interest including:

• Name, contact details and current address.
• A 300-word pitch (written or recorded audio/video) of what your initial idea in responding to RAMM collections might be.

(Please note it is okay for this to change throughout the process. We recognise that ideas evolve.)

• A 200-word summary (written or recorded audio/video) of your experience as a performance maker to date, including a list of any web links and publications (print and digital).
• An example of your work (e.g. link to a short film, website, piece of writing). No more than 5 pages maximum for written pieces.
• What you would hope to achieve by being part of this project and in undertaking this commission? OR: Why is it important to you to be part of a project such as this? No more than 200 words (written or recorded audio/video).

Selection Process:

• The deadline for expressions of interest is 5^th March 2021.
• Selected performers shall be informed by 19^th March 2021.
• Project will take place between 22^nd March – 31^st May 2021.
• Online event date is TBC (May 2021)

Submissions will be reviewed by members of the Queering the Museum Core team.

Decisions will be made based on programming a variety of responses that are dynamic in presenting a range of queer perspectives to a live audience.

Please submit your expression of interest and supporting material to Prof Jana Funke (j.funke@exeter.ac.uk). We welcome inquiries via email and are happy to discuss the project informally. Please contact Jana if you have any questions whatsoever (j.funke@exeter.ac.uk).

In light of the nature of this position, we consider the candidate’s racial/ethnic origins and sexual and/or gender identity to be a Genuine Occupational Requirement in accordance with Para 1, Schedule 9, of the Equality Act 2010. Therefore we are only requesting applications from people of colour who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, non-binary, gender diverse or gender-questioning.

How do queer, trans and gender diverse people relate to religion and faith? And how might we relate to the religious collections at RAMM?

Religion and faith are one of the core themes of Out and About: Queering the Museum at RAMM. At this event, Writer In Residence Natalie McGrath shared an early-stage creative response to two translated love letters between lesbian medieval nuns. Natalie’s writing has also been inspired by medieval objects from RAMM’s collections and she has been exploring representations of queer people of faith from the medieval period and beyond. In addition, Natalie will consider the process of writing during a pandemic and ideas around where writing and devotion meet.

To frame the reading, Prof Jana Funke (University of Exeter) drew on her research on lesbian and trans history, to explore how people in the past engaged with different religious beliefs and faiths to understand their gender and sexual identities. Jana’s research focuses on LGBTQ+ writers who engaged with Christianity and found meaning within religious ritual, community and iconography.

We were delighted that Belinda Dillon from Exeter City of Literature, one of our project partners, joined us to open the event.

The event was hosted by Ellie Coleman, one of our project co-directors, and Engagement Officer at RAMM.

Rejected Gay Sand Reading by Caleb Parkin

Find out more about Caleb Parkin.

Inspired by RAMM’s Ivor Treby sand collection.

Learn more about Caleb Parkin’s work on the project more widely in the following video.

Digital Short by Oren Shoesmith

Inspired by RAMM’s Magic Lantern Slides hymn sheets.

Find out more about Oren Shoesmith’s work.

Digital Short by Charice Bhardwaj and Carina Miles

Welcome to the matchbox cabaret … where the wall tastes like sugar, and the dancefloor’s alight, but the world is bigger in here, so we like it.” Well, sometimes. We’re struggling to find our way into the matchbox, and we’re worried that we’re underdressed, but we’ll squeeze in anyway and try not to burn our heads off too much under the stairs. Inspired by a 19th century matchbox in the RAMM collections during lockdown, and a variety of tiny objects, collaborators Charice and Carina discover a small queer world of pink hares and dark cupboards. 🕳 🔦🐰🔥✌️

Find out more about Charice Bhardwaj and Carina Miles.

Inspired by RAMM’s metal matchbox!

Content Description: The video contains some profanity and flashing lights.

Artists’ Platform

During lockdown, we commissioned Charice Bhardwaj, Carina Miles, Caleb Parkin and Oren Shoesmith to work with us on queering the museum. At our live event, which you can watch below, the artists shared some of their initial work and talked about their process. What are the challenges when working on the collections without being able to visit the museum? What ideas and forms of collaboration have emerged in their practice as artists? How can we queer the museum and engage with the collections at a distance?

The event featured conversations about queer and trans art, thinking and practice, as the artists covered a range of topics and themes including: the rejected gay sand of collector Ivor Treby, poetry inspired by scattered language and the art of queer failure, a variety of tiny objects (including a 19th-century matchbox) leading to the discovery of a small queer world of pink hares and dark cupboards, and finding queer and trans resonances in religious stories of transformation.

Lovebirds and Rocks

donated by Caleb Parkin

 William Keble Martin Lily Illustration

by Ashley Eyvanaki

Lillies by William Keble Martin (RAMM Collections)

Have you seen William Keble Martin’s illustration of flowers in the lily family? The Reverend spent much of his life studying plants and capturing their likeness in sketches and paintings. In 1934, his work took him to the vicarage of Great Torrington, where he devoted his energy to visiting parishioners and preparing sermons. However, his free time was spent in the garden and nature, studying botany from real life. For example, Martin drew the meadow saffron flower or Colchicum Autumnale seen in the bottom-right corner of the illustration from life, basing it on a specimen found in Torrington. This illustration of flowers in the lily family was a preliminary plate to be included in his book The Concise British Flora in Colour, which was then published in 1965.

Historically, lilies also hold significant meaning within the LGBTQ+ community. For example, the floral paintings of artist Georgia O’Keeffe have widely been thought to have a dual meaning. In particular, her delicate paintings of calla lilies have been viewed by some art critics as an intimate depiction of the female genitalia, so have been repurposed into an erotic lesbian symbol. During the 1970s, a new wave of feminists began to celebrate O’Keeffe’s portrayal of nature, the body, and themes of gender, despite her neither encouraging nor discouraging such interpretations of her work.

By 1999, artist and activist Michael Page suggested that the trillium flower be used as a symbol of bisexuality. The flower is significant as a member of the lily family, as well as for first causing scientists to use the word ‘bisexual’, albeit in reference to them having both male and female sex organs, rather than in reference to sexual orientation. Page wanted to create a prominent symbol for the bisexual community, much like how the rainbow gay pride flag had become emblematic of the gay community after its creation by Gilbert Baker. As a result, the bisexual pride flag consisted of a pink and blue stripe, with the former representing homosexuality and the latter representing heterosexuality, with both overlapping in the middle to form a purple stripe that symbolised both sexualities becoming one. This flag design emblazoned with a trillium grew to be widely accepted across Mexico by 2001, intertwining themes of nature with bisexuality.

What is your favourite LGBTQ+ flag design? Tell us in the comments below.