Curious Arts is a North Eastbased Arts and Youth charity championing and developing LGBTQIA+ arts, artists, and communities across the region and beyond.
Working in partnership with cultural and community organisations, Curious Arts develop and deliver community-focused arts projects and events through the year. Increasing visibility and understanding of LGBTQIA+ experiences and communities.
Why was the charity founded?
Curious Arts was founded by CEO & Executive Producer Phil Douglas in 2017, following the successful launch of LGBTQIA+ arts festival Curious Festival back in 2016.
Becoming a charity in early 2022, Curious Arts was founded to champion LGBTQIA+ arts and artists, increase LGBTQIA+ representation in the region’s cultural offer and create meaningful opportunities for LGBTQIA+ artists, communities and allies to engage in LGBTQIA+ culture.
Which areas do you cover?
Curious Arts is based both in Hartlepool and Newcastle but our annual programme of projects and events spans the whole of the North East, from the Tees Valley up to Northumberland. Our work often sees us popup around the country, with events as far and wide as Manchester, Liverpool, York, Oxford and Canary Wharf, London.
What type of events do you have?
We deliver a wide variety of projects and events and truly offer something for everyone, from family-friendly Mini Prides, Curious Takeovers and outdoor performances to comedy nights, performance cabarets and local Prides.
We also currently have five regular youth projects taking place in Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Newcastle and Gateshead – learning a variety of new skills from music production to forestry! Alongside this we support LGBTQIA+ artists to develop their practice and produce new works, deliver LGBTQIA+ awareness training to the public and cultural sector and tour original performances.
What is your mission?
Curious Arts’ values are creativity, inclusivity, and visibility and our mission is to champion and develop LGBTQIA+ arts and culture in the region, increasing opportunities for the LGBTQIA+ community as artists, audiences, and participants. Through advocacy and consultancy with partner organisations, we are developing projects, touring productions, and bespoke initiatives to celebrate and increase the visibility of the North East’s LGBTQIA+ culture.
What have been your proudest moments so far?
Working so closely with LGBTQIA+ communities and partners across the region, there have been many proud moments in our journey so far. Having the opportunity to make exciting, accessible projects and events happen in our home region and seeing firsthand their impact on the communities who engage, who have felt unrepresented beforehand, is always a motivating driver for our work.
We were very proud to achieve charity status in early 2022, after a challenging period navigating the pandemic. Gaining recognition for our work and actively living our values.
What are you currently working on?
All of the projects we’ve touched on already, but we’re particularly excited to be working with our partners and community members across the Tees Valley this year, to develop Pride events which are informed by the communities they celebrate and serve, in Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington, Hartlepool and Redcar & Cleveland.
We’re also actively continuing to develop our LGBTQIA+ awareness training, to support businesses and organisations in the public and private sectors to increase their team’s confidence in engaging authentically and respectfully with members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
How do people get involved?
Anyone who would like to attend an event, volunteer or take part in a project can find upcoming dates and contact information on our website. We welcome conversations with people who would like support or spread the word about our work.
Organisations that would like to invest in their LGBTQIA+ Awareness through our training sessions can start the process by emailing hello@curiousarts.org.uk or complete an enquiry form over on our website. www.curiousarts.org.uk