Dates: 25-26 November 2025
Location: National Trust – Heelis (Swindon)

The Queer Heritage and Collection Symposium aims to explore the innovative and meaningful queer programming being developed by museums and heritage organisations across the UK and internationally. It will include presentations from open submissions, invited keynote speakers and performances.

The symposium explores innovative, experimental and emerging approaches to researching and publicly presenting queer histories, lives and communities.

Access Digital Programme

Michael Hall: The lilies and the hob-nailed boots: queer coteries, homophobia and the modernisation of the National Trust

Keava McMillan and Alex Lednicky | Lavender Menace Archive
Desire Paths: Collaborative Mapping and Edinburgh’s Queer History

Danilo Marques dos Reis and Zorian Clayton | V&A
Temp / Perm: Ephemeral events and building collections

Ben Walters | Badge Cafe

Melissa Reeve-Rawlings
Towards Inclusive LGBTQ+ Heritage: Bisexual+ Visibility in Practice

Aaran Sian, Alison Clague and Esther Shaw | Culture Leicestershire
Villiers Revealed – We Have Always Been Here: Creative Practice and the Power of Community Co-creation ​

Aria Tilove | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Queering Nature: Reimagining Berlin’s natural history museum through a guided tour and audio guide

Liz Hide and Layo Danbury | Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
Queering Deep Time: Workplace culture, role models and an inclusive future for Earth science

Marge Bradshaw
LGBTQ+ Gynae Stories: Exploring Equitable Gynaecological Healthcare through Socially Engaged Practice and Participatory Research

Timothy Manningmore | National Trust and University of Oxford
Queer Georgians and Queer Histories at the National Trust

Law Roebuck and Ashlynn Hudson-Welburn | National Railway Museum
People, Pride and Progress: preserving the voices of rail’s LGBTQ+ history

Laura Chesover and Chloe Dennis | British Library
Finding your audience: How do we connect school audiences to the queer stories in the collection of the British Library?

Tash Walker and Sue Shave | Aunt Nell/Sue Shave Consulting
Stories and Strategies: Amplifying LGBTQ+ voices around the UK

Tim Jerrome | University of Brighton and TECHNE
Thomas and Austen: Queer rural histories and the way they are catalogued

Friday Schoemaker | Wiltshire Museum
Queer in Wiltshire: Queering a County Museum in a Rural Town

Celine Elliott, Simon Clark, with Lauryn Etheridge | English Heritage
Ertach Zhoosh! (‘Heritage Zhoosh!’)

Special thanks to our keynote speakers, Michael Hall and Claye Bowler.

Further resources: