Your Heritage programme
Grant awarded £48,100
The Rainbow project, led by Drug-line Lancashire, aimed to capture the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Blackpool over the last 50 years.
A series of workshops, community events, and focus groups, as well as one-to-one interviews, gave people the opportunity to share their memories. These were recorded and used to produce a booklet and a DVD. An exhibition combined those memories with artefacts, memorabilia, and costumes, loaned by participants, and with specially commissioned photos, to document the social history of the LGBT community in Blackpool. The exhibition toured local libraries and community centres. Some parts of it will be permanently displayed to provide a lasting record of the project.
Blackpool has one of the largest LGBT communities in the country, but nothing was available to mark that. The project has encouraged people to value a heritage and culture which until recently had to be hidden or disguised. It has also created a permanent resource for people to learn about the heritage.
The project brought together different parts of the LGBT community, and helped to create a greater sense of community identity and pride. By working with partners from a wide range of organisations, it has also increased awareness throughout Blackpool of the richness of LGBT heritage.
19/10/07