Another Queer Christmas

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What Is Another Queer Christmas?

Christmas 2013: theatre-maker Bethan Marlow and Mess Up The Mess presented a show-stopping production with 100 members of Swansea’s LGBTQI+ community.

Ten years on. The environment and culture of Swansea has changed tremendously. But its queer history is being erased.

Another Queer Christmas will connect the queer communities of Swansea in 2 years of creative activity, exploring and learning from each others’ individual and collective journeys and histories. Bringing together professional artists, queer creatives and the LGBTQI+ community, through writing, performance, visual arts and music, this inter-generational project will establish creative and inclusive spaces where queer Swansea can celebrate itself and its stories, all coming together in a Creative Explosion of events in Christmas 2024. Another Queer Christmas will create a legacy of lasting connections amongst individuals and organisations, establishing a network of queer creative activity long after the project ends.

Our Shared Objectives

  • Reduce loneliness and poor mental health amongst LGBTQI+ people by establishing creative inclusive spaces for them to gain confidence to be their authentic selves.
  • Create a queer safe space for all LGBTQI+ people, including those for whom the ‘scene’ is a barrier, being inclusive of disabled people, Welsh speakers, people from a global majority background, recognising their particular needs and insights.
  • Increase understanding of queer people, countering hate crime by bringing a creative queer experience to life across the City, claiming a space for queer voices in the story of Swansea’s communities.
  • Build resilience of grassroots LGBTQI+ organisations, increasing their membership and interconnections.
  • Leave behind a longterm legacy of queer creative activity sustained by an active network of individuals and organisations

Timeline

The project follows 5 phases:

Oct – Dec 2023:

  • Grassroots engagement with community
  • Run 25 multi-artform taster workshops across Swansea
  • Shape next phase through listening to participants’ voices

Jan – June 2024:

  • Deliver programme: 6 workshops x 5 artforms
  • Co-create themes, stories and ideas for exhibitions, performances and Creative Explosions

July – Aug 2024:

  • Intensive 3 day workshops in each of 5 artforms
  • Finalise Creative Explosion ideas with participants
  • Write scripts, make artworks

Sept – Dec 2024:

  • 12 workshops in each of 5 artforms
  • Finalise scripts, complete artworks and rehearse
  • 3 days of Creative Explosions: exhibitions, flashmobs, performances driven by participants’ ideas

Jan – Sep 2025 – The Legacy:

Legacy is considered from the outset, but this final phase allows for reflection, evaluation and focused development work with individuals and organisations which could result in:

  • kickstarting new queer artistic groups and activities building on connections created by the project and establishing networks
  • supporting groups to be more resilient with development support from Community Producer and project partners
  • Disseminating learning

The Partners

  • Bethan Marlow (Lead Artist)
  • Cerian Wilshere-Davies (Lead Artist)
  • Swansea Pride
  • PYNK
  • Arts and Heritage Team, Swansea Bay Univeristy Health Board
  • Urban Foundry
  • Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company (host organisation, producing)