University of Birmingham journal spotlights queer arts and culture in Midlands galleries

Dr Gregory Salter, Associate Professor in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, has edited the 8^th instalment of Midlands Art Papers.

Midlands Art Papers was founded by the University’s Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies in 2017. It brings together 13 public museums and galleries in the Midlands and plays a key role in championing arts in the region. Members of the network collaborate on a yearly journal featuring articles about regional collections, exhibitions, and curatorial and learning practices.

The newly published Midlands Art Papers 8 explores the exhibitions and initiatives that have showcased queer art, culture, and history across the region.

Dr Salter said of the latest issue: “This year’s issue of Midlands Art Papers uncovers the wide range of queer histories that have always been at the heart of museums and galleries in the Midlands, and spotlights the efforts and strategies used to bring them to audiences in the present.”

Articles in the issue include conversations and reflections on queer exhibitions and community-led projects like Positive Leicester, a 2022 exhibition at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. In their article, the exhibition’s coordinators Catherine Hallsworth and Jonathan Raynor describe how it was created in partnership with the Leicester-based charity Trade Sexual Health. Positive Leicester explored the evolution of testing, treatment, and public perceptions of HIV/AIDS over the past forty years, both in Leicester and internationally. 

Other articles look at research into the presence of queer art in collections. University of Birmingham PhD student Natasha Booth-Johnson has written an article about the survey of objects of ‘queer significance’ that she completed in 2023. In it, she explains the criteria that shaped the survey of the collections and reflects on her findings.

The issue also explores ‘queer’ art that resists or challenges the label, as in Dr Salter’s article. He has analysed John Yeadon’s Modern Art, Disco Drawing, from the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry. Despite the sexual themes at the core of his work, Yeadon was resistant to his work being labelled as ‘gay art’. Dr Salter uses Modern Art, Disco Drawing to explore ‘queer’ art’s themes and controversies in the early 1980s.

Reflecting on the release of the 8^th Midlands Art Papers, Dr Salter said: “I hope readers will take from the issue an understanding of the sustained queer work that has been happening in museums and galleries in the Midlands for decades, through different political and social climates, as well as a sense of the really rich and varied ways in which this work continues today.”

Midlands Art Papers 8 is available to read for free on the University of Birmingham website.