Join us during LGBT+ History Month 2026 for a special archive exploration and queer history tour led by the team at Manchester-based arts organisation IAP:MCR who have created the exhibition, Re/Assemble (17 January 2026 to 3 January 2027 at PHM).
Choose from a morning or afternoon session to delve into material linked to the protest against Section 28 and LGBTQIA+ activism. This will feature the museum’s archive, galleries and Re/Assemble exhibition.
10.15am – 11.00am:
Join LGBT+ writer and public historian Joshua Val Martin on a tour and talk of the city’s queer history, with a particular focus on the theme of ‘protest’. Josh will use the Re/Assemble exhibition materials to illuminate the various, often unexpected, ways in which Manchester’s people have fought to liberate LGBT+ lives.
11.00am – 12.45pm:
Join PHM’s Archive team and the curator of Re/Assemble, Jez Dolan, as they investigate materials specially selected from the museum’s LGBTQIA+ collections including papers of Hugh Fell – former secretary of the North West Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Equality (NWCLGE), the North West Campaign for Gay and Lesbian Rights from the late 1980s, and Gay News from early 1970s.
1.15pm –3.00pm:
Join PHM’s Archive team and the curator of Re/Assemble, Jez Dolan, as they investigate materials specially selected from the museum’s LGBTQIA+ collections, including papers of Hugh Fell – former secretary of the North West Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Equality (NWCLGE) , the North West Campaign for Gay and Lesbian Rights from the late 1980s, and Gay News from early 1970s.
3.00pm – 3.45pm:
Join LGBT+ writer and public historian Joshua Val Martin on a tour and talk of the city’s queer history, with a particular focus on the theme of ‘protest’. Josh will use the Re/Assemble exhibition materials to illuminate the various, often unexpected, ways in which Manchester’s people have fought to liberate LGBT+ lives.
Jez Dolan is a queer visual artist, whose work explores queerness and identity through the codification of language. Often interdisciplinary and research driven, Jez draws from archival source materials to create new works.
Jez is Artistic Director of IAP:MCR.
Joshua Val Martin is a writer who works across theatre, television, music and public history. He develops work through research-led processes, drawing on interviews, archives – and sometimes autobiographical material – to shape his fictional worlds with wit, musicality and magic realism. His work has been produced by organisations including the Royal Exchange Theatre, National Theatre, and SKY Television.
Joshua is a Director of IAP:MCR.
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