Housewarming: A Noughties Queer Home
This LGBTQIA+ History Month, celebrate queer domesticity, love and community at our next Museum Late. Join us for late-night access to our galleries, curator tours, pop-up shops, music, drinks, and creative activities.
Photo by Kenneth Lam | kenneth-lam.com
Join us for our next Museum Late! We'll be open after hours, offering you the chance to explore our Rooms Through Time. Opened in July 2024, explore the seven newest period rooms at the Museum with a curator-led tour, spotlighting stories of queer domesticity in our High-rise Flat in 2005. Expect late-night access to the Museum with music, delicious drinks, creative workshops, pop-up stalls and curator-led tours.
A High-rise Flat in 2005 was curated with the help of participants from LGBTQI+ communities, funded through Art Happens, Art Fund’s crowd-funding platform, John Shakeshaft and Andrew Hochhauser KC.
About the room
The room tells a story of flatmates Ashley, Alex and Nadia living together in a high-rise block in Hackney, following the population boom of the 1950s-70s.
From pinning up club memorabilia collected from homes away from home (bars and clubs) to Maggie as a disco diva in the bathroom, the tenants are personalising their home to create a safe and serene space. This is a time of steep rises in positive LGBTQIA+ representation, Section 28 has been repealed, and the 2005 Kyoto Protocol has come into effect with the UK pledging to substantially reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Note on terminology
The term ‘queer’ may not resonate with everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community. While it has historically been used as a slur, many have reclaimed it with pride, and it is widely used in academic and advocacy spaces. Our intention is always inclusivity, using ‘queer’ as a term that embraces people of all identities. Everyone is welcome here.
About Housewarmings
Celebrate our newest, permanent gallery, this Museum Late series unpacks the stories of our seven new Rooms Through Time and explore what Home can mean. Explore how homes have evolved aesthetically alongside societal shifts, and enjoy a lively night at the Museum.
Programme
Bedazzling & Badgemaking station
All night
Studio
Add some Y2K sparkle to your night with our bagdemaking and bedazzling station! Customise your accessories, flip phones, or even your outfit with badges and vintage or deadstock rhinestones.
Bring your own items to bedazzle or buy a bandana upon arrival. We’ll have noughties-era magazines on hand you can use to collage and customise your badges. Badges will be 2 for £5, and packs of rhinestones £5.
Love Map
All night
Contribute to our Love Map as we celebrate queer love, friendships, and chosen family by mapping out meaningful places and memories.
Curator tours | £5
Ticketed £5 | Booking required
Tours at 6.30pm-7.15pm and 7.30pm-8.15pm
Rooms Through Time (meet at Atrium)
Get a special tour of the seven newest period rooms in our Rooms Through Time with a museum curator. You’ll discover the personal stories, objects and process of curating the gallery, including stories of queer domesticity in the High-rise Flat in 2005.
Late-night shopping / Pop-up market
All night
Shop & Atrium
Join us for a lively pop-up market celebrating LGBTQIA+ artists, makers, and designers. Bee Illustrates, Richard Moonstreet Ceramics, lezbag, Frances Gibson, Urania, Christopher Lian, and Shaven Raven Designs will be showcasing curated collections throughout the evening.
Our popular museum shop will be open all night offering a fantastic selection of homeware, books, prints, and trinkets.
Music & Bar
All night
Immerse yourself in the sounds of the noughties with a curated mixtape of iconic hits. Our bar will be serving up delicious cocktails and mocktails. Plus, grab a candy necklace for a sweet, nostalgic treat.
About the pop-up stallholders
Bee Illustrates
An interdisciplinary creative based in London, Bee (aka @beeillustrates) graduated from The University of Edinburgh in 2021 with a First Class Ba(Hons) in Illustration, and was a recipient of The Edinburgh Award. Having worked for several years as a commercial illustrator post-graduation, their practice of late has shifted towards more personal, vulnerable and introspective works, exploring themes of queerness, heritage, memory and 'otherness' across a range of media.
In 2021, Bee co-founded and curated Hysterical, a yearly exhibition and cultural programme. Hysterical has received much critical acclaim and has been featured in The Evening Standard, DAZED, It’s Nice That, BBC Radio London, ITV Woo and more. In 2022, Bee l was Longlisted for the World Illustration Awards for their piece Lovers, and was a judge for the 2023 D&AD New Blood Awards.
This year, they have exhibited works throughout the UK, worked closely with the Barbican Centre awarding arts funding as part of an initiative by the Barbican Communities team, and are an NG200 Creator in partnership with The National Gallery for their Bicentenary celebration programme.
A selection of prints, cards, zines and other ephemera featuring all of Bee's most popular illustrations and paintings will be available for purchase.
Richard Moonstreet Ceramics
Silly ceramic ducks, chickens and geese. Handmade in London and flown Worldwide! Perfect gifts, home decor & companions for life. Step inside the whimsical world and find your new favourite fowl friend! Vases, pots, silly ornaments, salt and pepper shakers, and adorable handmade pals waiting to be adopted and loved.
lezbag
Mr Lez is a bag designer born and raised in North London. He created the first classic lezbag in 2016 for his friend Megan. He now has a permanent collection of bags and averages three collaborative collections annually. He is an object fetishist and is mad about fabrics and the way colours transform each other in proximity. His favourite thing is to see butches shine. What he loves most about lez is getting to invent new things out of other things in his studio with incredible queer and trans makers and designers.
Frances Gibson
Frances Gibson is a ceramicist making from Rochester square, Camden. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in Fine art, 2018, Fran has developed an illustrative and witty ceramics practice, with recurrent motifs of hands, ants and elephants!
Urania
Urania is a London-based artisanal fragrance house, redefining the art of scent. Inspired by the muse of astronomy and heavenly love, we embrace nonconformity to create Contemporary High Perfumery that is both timeless and bold. By blurring the boundaries of gender, we inspire individuality and celebrate the power of self-expression.
Ranges feature nods to the creative's West African heritage using colour, humour, bold type and Ankara motifs and a celebration of queer identities.
Social media: @uranialondon
Christopher Lian
Chris is a London based artist who frequently explores (sometimes intersecting) themes of the longing for home and queer identity in his artwork. He has previously been a stallholder at Queeriosities Arts + Makers Fair.
Social media: @christopher.lian_
Shaven Raven Designs
Shaven Raven Designs is the moniker of East London-based graphic designer and illustrator, Ufuoma Urie. After a career freelancing, the UAL alum started a sustainable greeting card and gift wrap brand to fill the niches that exist in the market. Put simply: she wanted to create things for people like her: 'third culture kids' - the children of 1st generation immigrants growing up in the United Kingdom.
Ranges feature nods to the creative's West African heritage using colour, humour, bold type and Ankara motifs and a celebration of queer identities. At Shaven Raven Designs, patterns reign supreme!
Social media: @the_shaven_raven
Photo by Jaron James
Ticketing
Entry is free, with some paid elements. Get tickets now to secure your place. Doors open from 6pm.
Date
Thursday 27 February 2025
Time
6pm to 9pm
Cost
Free, with some paid elements
Location
Museum of the Home - 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA