GLASGOW.- queer timɘs school prints is a new exhibition at Glasgow’s Gallery Of Modern Art that explores the histories and experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Polysexual, Queer, Intersex + Allies (LGBTPQI+A) in Scotland over the past 50 years.

The exhibition opened on 1 December 2019 (World Aids Day) and is part of an art and citizenship project commissioned and acquired by Glasgow Museums from Jason E. Bowman, a Scottish artist and curator, researcher and educator based at the Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The exhibition includes print commissions from a further nine artists and will be open until 10 March 2019.

The queer timɘs school prints exhibition is the culmination of the wider Queer Times project which has taken place over the course of this year. Led by GoMA, the project Queer Times received £9,100 in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Sharing Heritage grant to respond to the complex coalescence of a number of significant LGBT+ anniversaries in 2018. This includes the end of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales (1967) – which also paradoxically marks the beginning of the 13 year wait for Scotland to partially decriminalise homosexuality, in 1980, and the 30th anniversary of the introduction of Section 28.

Section 28 stated that a local authority ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. Its repeal, in 2000, was one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the then new Scottish Parliament. As a result of ongoing campaigning, in November 2018, Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced that Scotland will become the first country in the world to have LGBTI inclusive education embedded in the curriculum.

Jason E. Bowman said: “When GoMA originally commissioned this project, we couldn’t have predicted the recent announcement that LGBTI issues, lives and histories would, via legislation, become a compulsory part of Scotland’s schools’ curriculum. This should shape all our public institutions with educational remits, including the gallery and museum sectors.

Such legislation is a significant advancement, but real societal change requires structural change, shifts in power and adjustments of social mores, customs and practices. To challenge the status quo requires not only courage but solidarities and strategies that destabilise hetero-orthodoxies. The queer timɘs school prints exhibition isn’t necessarily celebratory – it recognises the difficulties of the past and present, but hopefully leads to a future where Queer is here, there and running through everywhere – but also on its terms.”

Prior to this exhibition Bowman initiated the queer timɘs school which took place in summer of 2018. Between 23 -27 July and on 4 August, queer timɘs school participants attended assemblies across museum sites, archives, libraries and other public institutions in Glasgow, including Burgh Court Hall, Glasgow Women’s Library and Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.

At these assemblies, researchers, activists, archivists, art and social historians, scientists, curators and artists examined the conditions affecting LGBTPQI+A lives and histories and their organisation. Ten artists, including Bowman, were subsequently commissioned to produce prints relating to concerns identified by the queer timɘs school’s regular participants, from their understandings of these assemblies.

Bowman’s current projects investigate how bodies, lives and histories are shaped and coerced through dominant forms of organisation. This may include formal types of organisation but also cultures, such as how social mores and customs influence how citizens organise to resist or campaign for change.

queer timɘs school explored how art can be produced and exhibited, with citizens directly influencing what a public art institution commissions, collects and curates. The queer timɘs school prints responds to current initiatives that tackle equality of gender and sexual orientation in schools.

There is a significant history of prints being circulated and distributed to schools, and a key historic principle of these initiatives has been providing access to contemporary art to those who many not otherwise encounter it. Simultaneously, there is a history of prints which seek to be educational and thus address particular themes or support curriculum.

Thus, in addition to the prints entering the Glasgow Museums’ collection, it is proposed that editions of these prints, along with lesson plans developed with experienced teachers, will be made available to Glasgow secondary schools through a partnership with Glasgow City Council Education Department for them to display and inform LGBT curriculum and pupil support within the school environment.

Lucy Casot, Head of HLF Scotland, said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund is proud to support Scottish heritage in all of its diversity. The funding will allow this local organisation to delve in to hidden histories that are not just important for the LGBT community but for all of us. They tell us about how far we have all come in terms of equal rights and attitudes. We are delighted that National Lottery player’s money is able to make this project happen.”

Councillor David McDonald, the Chair of Glasgow Life and Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “The queer timɘs school prints exhibition is the culmination of the queer times school project which took place earlier this year, in which participants were asked to share and listen to examples of challenges experienced by people from the LGBTPQI+A community in Scotland over the past 50 years.

“The prints on display at GoMA reflect the stories of our local communities and aim to recognize their fight against exclusion and for rights and equality. We are proud to present this exhibition which advocated for better representation of LGBTPQI+A artists and citizens in public museum collections.”

The queer timɘs school prints exhibition also hosts a changing programme of film, tours, events and a reading room within the exhibition which have been programmed by participants who attended the queer timɘs school assemblies.