During June, we celebrated Pride month with a combination of events, exhibitions, and resources we put together and shared. Our first event took place on the 1st of June where we arranged a ‘craft club’ in collaboration with Queer by Gum. This involved a presentation from Queer by Gum group about their work followed by an arts and craft workshop. The art produced from this event was then displayed in our stairwell exhibition space from the 12th to the 18th of June. One attendee stated in our anonymous feedback form: “Got the chance to exercise some feelings and embrace my queerness a bit more freely. Also got to meet some new queer people.”

We also curated a book display including fiction and non-fiction work about the LGBTQ+ community. We are grateful for all of the suggestions we received which helped us to build this collection and help us to celebrate and explore the lives and culture of LGBTQ+ people and enhance the visibility of the community. Students, staff and all members of the public were encouraged to browse, sit and read, or borrow any of the displayed books.

During Lancaster Pride, which occurred on the 25th of June, we collaborated with the central EDI team who shared some of our books at their stall and promoted our community card (LINK). Here, we also asked for more recommendations for resources from the local community and we intend to incorporate these into our collection.