Outsiders: Then & Now
Museum of Homelessness secures National Lottery support for Outsiders Then and Now. We will keep people updated on the project in light of the evolving situation with coronavirus.
Museum of Homelessness has received a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for an 18 month creative heritage activism project, Outsiders,Then and Now. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project will explore the heritage of grassroots movements in the homeless and LGBTIQ+ communities since the 1960s in order to inspire change today.
Beginning in 2020, this project forms the next exciting step in our joint creative residency with Queerseum at the Outside Project’s Community Centre in Clerkenwell Fire Station. Other key partners include Streets Kitchen, Islington Council, The Simon Community and London Metropolitan Archives.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £98,000 will support:
A new weekly direct access drop in service including creative heritage activity for the street homeless community in Islington.
A new exhibition and public programme during Pride month at the Outside Project’s community centre in Clerkenwell Fire Station.
Creative activity across the borough of Islington in 2020 and 2021.
Paid work for artists, producers and researchers from the LGBTIQ+ and homeless communities.
Volunteer opportunities and skills training for our communities.
True to MoH and Queerseum’s way of working, everything will be co-produced. This means that people with experience of homelessness and LGBTIQ+ people will create the exhibitions, events and other creative activity, working with MoH and Queerseum collections for inspiration. Keep an eye on our social media channels for announcements about how to get involved.
This is the first time the ‘Outsider Heritage’ of homelessness and LGBTIQ+ resistance in the UK has been explored together. Both have an inspiring history of people affected by inequality taking action. In addition there is considerable cross over between the histories as LGBTIQ+ people are disproportionately affected by homelessness. This project will look at how people have campaigned and taken action in the past and what it can teach us about the actions we need to take today.
“This project will honour the people who have come before us and it will offer our communities inspiration at a time of sharp crisis and oppression”
Carla Ecola, Director, The Outside Project
“Queerseum agitated the need for our stories to be told, often they were left on the outside margins of society. We will bring it front and centre with an exciting opportunity with MoH & The Outside Project. YOU will help tell our stories, keeping our community at its heart.”
Damien Arness-Dalton, Queerseum Founder.
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive this support, made possible by National Lottery players. Outsiders Then and Now is happening at an important time. In the UK we see rising homelessness, a never-ending housing crisis and an alarming rise in hate crime. This project will look to the past to explore what our inspirational elders did when faced with intolerance. It will show how injustice builds and develops and most importantly, how it can be beaten.”
Matt Turtle, Museum of Homelessness co-founder.
Stuart McLeod, Director London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Recording and sharing community stories is an incredibly important way of learning about our heritage and discovering what it can tell us about our future. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, we’re delighted to support the Museum of Homelessness’ project.”
Notes to editors
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund