Wiltshire Museum has received £16,574 from the National Lottery Community Fund for an exciting LGBTQIA+ community project, the Queer in Wiltshire project.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will allow us to run an extensive and engaging in-person and online event programme until August 2025. This will include workshops run by LGBTQIA+ artists and queer activities including catch-ups, craft sessions and queer heritage talks. We will also work with the local LGBTQIA+ community to create an online database and exhibition of local LGBTQIA+ stories.
Friday Schoemaker, Queer in Wiltshire Project Officer, says: “We are delighted to have received this grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to provide LGBTQIA+ visitors with community, support and representation through inclusive and exciting events, and help queer people across Wiltshire explore and celebrate their identity.”
If you would like to contribute to the project by joining our LGBTQIA+ advisory group or sharing your story, or would like to find out more about the project, please contact Friday Schoemaker on 01380 727369 or Friday.Schoemaker@wiltshiremuseum.org.uk.
Using the word 'Queer'
Wiltshire Museum recognises that the word “queer” has a complex, painful history and can be uncomfortable and divisive. We have decided to use the word “queer” as it has been reclaimed in recent years and is now widely used within the LGBTQIA+ community and academia as an umbrella term for non-heterosexual/cisgender and gender nonconforming people. For us, “queer” is the most inclusive term we can use, and we use it as a positive word, not seeking to erase or disregard anyone’s identity and history but instead aiming to reflect the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Wiltshire Museum is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and we take seriously our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.
Notes for Editors
Wiltshire Museum is home to the best Bronze Age archaeology collection in Britain and our mission statement is ‘Inspiring people to explore the archaeology, history and environment of Wiltshire’. The collections are Designated by Government as being of National Significance. Wiltshire Museum is an independent charity, with some revenue funding from Wiltshire Council and Devizes Town Council. The Museum is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (WANHS), a registered charity founded in 1853.
About The National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.
As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality. To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk
