Homotopia: Same-Sex Qulit project visiting Unity Theatre and Museum of Liverpool

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Liverpool getting more people to take part in the Same-Sex quilt project. It started with Friday evening at Unity theatre.  I had a station set up and as people waited between performances I got the audience involved in decorating drawings of the MPs that voted in support of Same-Sex Marriage.

It was a really great environment; people were relaxing and talking about the shows and the project. I think the social aspect of the waiting between the events and people being able to enjoy some refreshments really helped people feel comfortable and get involved. 

Lots of people passed on really positive comments about the project and everyone expressed their enjoyment of doing something creative, which many people said they hadn’t done anything crafty in a long time.

I hope the experience awakens their creative side and makes them want to play more with craft in future.

I also had an unexpected visitor, an interviewer! She read the programme and wanted to do a piece on the project I will send out more details of the article when I have them.

This is Joan Burnett a Trustee of Liverpool Pride and the person who helped support me come to and deliver a stall at Liverpool Pride. I’m really pleased she had a chance to make a contribution to the quilt!

The following day I went to the Museum of Liverpool and had a station in front of the April Ashley exhibition which was a part of Homotopia. It’s a fantastic exhibition providing a retrospective of April Ashley MBE. It’s beautifully curated and really inspiring I highly recommend visiting and having an explore. 

It was an incredible day! There were so many people who came by and took part my head was spinning by the end of it.

The staff were really supportive and helpful; they provided foam presentation boards to help display the work. 

This really helped draw more people into take part. I could tell people really responded to having their work shown in the museum. 

They liked adding their signatures as contributing artists and waited as I put their piece on display.

 This is a picture of representatives from the Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival who came for a visit!

This is Gary Everett who is the artistic Director of Homotopia and the person who supported me by finding the venues in Liverpool for me to deliver the workshops! I’m really pleased he came by and took part as well!

I also had a little interview with Homotopia.tv which was very daunting. I was asked how people had reacted to the project and they had reacted really positively which I said in the interview.

Then a few minutes later and a woman said she didn’t want to take part because she thought ‘it was unnatural’. I asked her if she meant marriage and she replied that if men and women don’t procreate we will all die out. I did try to point out that we live in a heavily populated country and globally areas are over populated.

 I asked her why she thought people might be interested in people of the same sex. She replied that she thought we ‘think too much’. I bit my tongue, but I am glad to be accused of thinking too much, rather than not at all.

 It’s a shame to have someone who had such strong prejudices but it is another reminder why it’s important to do this project to promote tolerances and hopefully eventually acceptance!

Anyway over the three days collectively there were over 200 contributions! I was stunned I was hoping just to achieve a hundred so reaching half of the contributions needed in three days is fantastic.