ABSTRACT
In 2017, the People’s History Museum (PHM) in Manchester, UK, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexual acts in England and Wales with a high profile, year-long series of exhibitions, events, and learning programs exploring the past, present, and future of LGBTQ+ activism. This case study discusses the background, methodologies, and impact of Never Going Underground (NGU), a community-led, coproduced project that aimed to give LGBTQ+ people a platform to explore and present their histories in an intersectional, accessible, and engaging way. Elements of the project included an award-winning major exhibition coproduced by a team of nine volunteer Community Curators; three further community exhibitions; an innovative family-friendly program; a schools learning program; new museum-community networks and partnerships; and more developed LGBTQ+ collections as well as greater subject knowledge among museum workers.
The project engaged with over 11,600 participants, with 51,943 people visiting the main exhibition. NGU was challenging and ambitious; it has had a major impact on PHM as an organization and has shifted how it works, to become more outward-facing and collaborative.
