Home and art: creating, performing and researching home

Just a quickie to say I'll be speaking at this event on Friday 1st May. I realised I'm posting this too late to entice anyone to it, as the registration period has closed, (I've just got back from a conference in New York which I'll blog about shortly) but I thought I'd share anyway, as it promises to be a really interesting day.

HOME AND ART: CREATING, PERFORMING AND RESEARCHING HOME
Friday 1st May 2015
The Geffrye Museum of the Home, London

Programme

10.00-10.15
Registration and Introduction
Richard Baxter and Olivia Sheringham
Queen Mary University of London 

10.15-11.00
Keynote 
Gill Perry
The Open University 
Breaking and Entering the Home: Practices, Problems and Definitions in Contemporary Art 

11.00-12.20
Inside Home

Vanessa Marr
Artist and University of Brighton/Sussex Coast College 
Women and domesticity: investigating common experiences and perspectives through creative collaboration. A collection of hand-embroidered dusters

Sarah McAdam
Photographer and London College of Communication 
Home is Where the Art is

Cate Hursthouse
Artist and University of Hertfordshire 
Unmaking the homely: de-familiarising the tablecloth

Laura Cuch
Artist and University College London 
'The Best Place in the World': a biography of home

12.20-13.00
Lunch

13.00-13.40
Keynote
Sutapa Biswas
Artist 
Home and Hearth / Hearth and home. Love in a cold climate

13.40-15.00
Domestic Marginality

Sean Curran
Curator and UCL Institute of Education
Queer activism begins at home: the curator as activist in historic houses

Janetka Platun
Artist 
But where is home?

Alice Correia
University of Salford 
The House that Jack Built: Home, Identity and Legacies of Empire in the work of Donald Rodney

David Pinder
Queen Mary University of London 
‘If my house was still there’: sound, memory and the destruction of home

15.00-15.20
Tea and coffee

15.20-16.40
Performing Home

Jon Orlek, Mark Parsons and Cristina Cerrulli
University of Sheffield and Studio Polpo 
Open Public Experimental Residential Activity (OPERA): Looking Back and Looking Forwards

Paul Merchant
University of Cambridge 
Who can publicise the private? Domesticity, representation and class in ‘El hombre de al lado’

Nadege Meriau
Artist-in-residence Queen Mary University of London 
Home futures: exploring the Aylesbury Estate through video and sculpture

Katie Beswick
Queen Mary University of London
The Resident Artist: Jordan McKenzie’s Council Estate Practice

16.40-17.00
Closing Remarks
Harriet Hawkins
Royal Holloway University of London 
Collaboration and curation

'Queer homes, queer houses' workshop at 'Lines of Dissent', the 12th annual LMA LGBTQ History & Archives conference

Yesterday was London Metropolitan Archives' 12th annual LGBTQ History and Archives conference. The day was co-curated by the Raphael Samuel History Centre and the theme was 'Lines of Dissent' and was focusing on queer genealogy. The key note from Daniel Monk, Birkbeck was 'The perils and pleasures of queer wills' and after that was a series of carousel workshops in which delegates got to play archive detective by looking at primary source documents and trying to gather what the material might say about the person, or people to whom they belonged.

In the afternoon, I facilitated a workshop called 'Queer homes, queer houses', in which I briefly spoke about my own research, and highlighted some examples of queer homes. I then asked the participants to create plans of a place they live, or have lived in, but instead of highlighting rooms or objects, to highlight moments and memories. We all did this on A3 tracing paper, and then we tied them all together to create a patchwork curtain (dubbed on the day, rather tongue-in-cheek, as a patchwork quilt of painful memories), which I then presented to all of the delegates. I'm delighted with how much effort everyone put in, and for sharing their memories, and I'm really grateful to Jan Pimblett, who organised the day, for inviting me to do a workshop. It has given me loads to think about for my research. You can view the work that was created here:

Created with flickr slideshow.

and I made a video of some highlights here:


'Queer homes, queer houses' : a workshop at the LMA LGBTQ History and Archives conference from Sean Curran on Vimeo.

Here are a few pictures of the workshop in progress:

and a few of me presenting it, thanks to my glamorous assistants Jan and Gavin:

Another highlight of the day for me was when Surat Shaan Knan of Rainbow Jews told us his personal story and wonderful news, and announced the successful funding bid for Twilight People, a project about trans* people of faith, which I am delighted to announce I will be co-curating. I can't wait for us to work together, and I am sure this really important project will be a huge success!

Thanks again to Jan, to Gavin Baldwin, Matt Cook, Justin Bengry, Faridha Karim, Surat, and to everyone else who organised and contributed to make it such an inspiring day. Also, big thanks to Claire Hayward who ensured there was a lively twitter presence throughout the day, and who has storified the tweets here.

Lines of Dissent - 12th Annual LGBTQ History & Archives Conference

I'm really pleased to share the flyer for the London Metropolitan Archives' 12 Annual LGBTQ History and Archives conference, run in partnership with the Raphael Samuel History Centre this year. I've been part of the conference steering committee for the last two years along with a great team, and this year I've been asked to host a practical workshop about queer homes. The focus this year is on LGBTQ genealogy and family history.

The conference takes place at the London Metropolitan Archives on December 6th, tickets are just £10, or £7.50 for concessions. You can book tickets here.

I hope to see many of you there!