(Un)Defining Queer | Project & Research Exhibition

(Un)Defining Queer is a participatory-led project that is working with an intersectional group of people, who self-identify as LGBTQIA+.

Centered around the use of language, (Un)Defining Queer is interrogating LGBTQIA+ histories and narratives within the Whitworth’s practice and collections. More specifically, the project is seeking to redress historic omissions that exist resulting in a ‘Queer Glossary’ that is relevant for multiple voices.

(Un)Defining Queer is currently on show across two gallery spaces. The School of Creativity, our new community space within the gallery will display our participants’ work as we facilitate and explore the use of queer language. This space is currently showcasing our ongoing thinking as a gradual ‘mood board’ emerges. 

Within the Collections Care Centre, we are displaying over 40 artworks that have had a queer lens applied to them. This space actively invites people from the LGBTQIA+ communities, their friends, families and allies to contribute to the ‘Queer Glossary’ via the use of comment cards, which will then be displayed within both gallery spaces. The Collection Care Centre will also be activated with material that relates to queer art history, along with resources and services from the LGBT Foundation, our partner organisation on this project.

This page is about the 2022 project and research exhibition '(Un)Defining Queer'* that ran from 28 February – 30 October 2022

*In 2023 the major exhibition '(Un)Defining Queer' opened at the Whitworth, 27 January – 3 December 2023