Homotopia - the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans combined
arts organisation in the north of England - has been awarded three
years funding following a successful complaint to Arts Council
England.
Liverpool-based Homotopia applied to become a National Portfolio
Organisation earlier this year along with over 1300 other arts
organisations nationally.
Only 695 applications were successful and 28 organisations
complained - of these 28 only 3 complaints were upheld and
reassessed. Homotopia, which was initially judged to be ineligible,
was the only one of the three to have the original decision
overturned and become a NPO with three-year funding from
2012.
Homotopia Director, Gary Everett is delighted with the decision.He
told PinkPaper.com:
"Over the last 8 years we have grown from an annual local arts
festival into an organisation delivering a national and
international programme of arts, social justice and education
initiatives 365 days of the year.
"I believe this funding acknowledges the exceptional quality of
the art we deliver and the valuable work we do to tackle Hate
Crime, bullying and prejudice through our award winning Project
Triangle. It reflects our commitment to increasing social cohesion
through our engagement with diverse communities, young people and
the elderly who would often otherwise feel excluded from arts
venues or gay culture.
"With this support and the continuing support of Liverpool City
Council we can engage with more artists, writers, producers,
dancers and performers to reach new communities. This year's
festival programme already features an eclectic mix of world
premieres by international artists, new work from local artists and
more events in our burgeoning youth strand. We will continue to
bring audiences to Liverpool and to export Liverpool
internationally. Our web-based tv service alone reaches 200,000
people a year from Australia to the Middle East."
A spokesperson for Arts Council England said: "Through our
national portfolio Homotopia will make a valuable contribution to
the vibrant festival offer in England, especially in Liverpool
where they form part of a strong festival calendar which celebrates
the diversity of the city's communities."
Homotopia started in November 2004 with a handful of arts events
and has grown to become a key feature of the cultural calendar.
Previous participating artists have included; Sarah Waters, Nigel
Charnock, Sadie Lee, David Hoyle, Gary Clarke and Armistead
Maupin.
Currently Homotopia is working with Turku, Finland, European
Capital of Culture 2011 where it has co-curated a year long
exhibition by Tom of Finland. Earlier this year Project Triangle
took 8 young people to Warsaw and staged Liverpool's first Youth
Hate Crime Conference. Project Triangle is in discussion with
Gdansk to screen films the young people have made later this
year.
Last year Homotopia took the Pansy Project to Istanbul,
Turkey.
