The Out in the Museum blog may have appeared rather quiet of late but that doesn’t mean all has been ‘quiet on the queer front’ here at the Museum. As today marks the official start of autumn, now seems an apt time to start reflecting on what has been a full summer of LGBTQ-related work, play and exploration.
Today the spotlight is on our volunteer guides …
Bringing Innovation
You may have already spotted mention of it on the Museum’s social media earlier this month but I think that the magnificent achievement of our LGBTQ Tour volunteer guides bears repeating (with handfuls of celebratory glitter). In recognition of their pioneering work, the team received the Bringing Innovation award at the London Volunteers in Museums Awards, for their monthly LGBTQ Tours of the V&A.
These tours are the first time that a major London museum has added a volunteer-led guided LGBTQ tour to its permanent schedule. They highlight LGBTQ stories that can be found within objects across the collection, exploring gender and sexual identities through a selection of LGBTQ related objects.
Our guides are tremendously committed and work extremely hard to guarantee that the tours take place each month. Attracting an average of 65 expectant visitors each time, there are always three guides present to ensure that tours can be undertaken in comfortably sized groups.
Since the tours started in April 2015, they have attracted over 1,000 people to join them. In fact the 1,000th attendee was among this lovely group of visitors last month.
The award ceremony took place at the Museum of London and here are some of the team enjoying their well-earned success on the night.
