Pioneers of Pride
How can we work with communities to address historic social injustices and collect stories previously missing from museum collections?
Tees Valley Museums and Preston Park Museum & Grounds have been working collaboratively with local LGBT+ communities to achieve better representation in their museum collection as part of our Museum of Missing Stories Activity – a partnership which has helped the museum become a more inclusive space.
The Pioneers of Pride campaign connects audiences to museums through community engagement and contemporary collecting across the Tees Valley.
Our museums are working to address gaps in museum collections, collect stories at risk and to help communities see our museums as safe, welcome and inclusive spaces.
The campaign aligns with the Museum Association learning and engagement manifesto, which has guided our work with communities to enhance health and wellbeing, create better, more inclusive places to live and work, and provide opportunities for debate and reflection.
We’ve used our museum collections and local history as a tool for meaningful discussions with LGBT+ people (including elders, asylum seekers and people in prison).
A community group visit to Preston Park Museum & Grounds.
During creative engagement sessions with a local LGBT+ groups, we’ve shared collections from across Tees Valley Museums in a variety of ways, including object handling, craft and chat sessions, and museum visits where participants shared their thoughts on current museum collections, displays, and programming.
An example of a collage created during a museum craft and chat session. The collage was created using copies of artworks from Preston Park Museum & Grounds and Kirkleatham Museum, and Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service.
Mostly as a somewhat excluded minority it was uplifting to know that our community was being recognised and worthy of interest as a project that explains the history of people such as our group in the Cleveland area.
We were privileged to welcome the 3 women into our over 50 LGBTQ+ community at the Free to be Me project in Stockton.
I really enjoyed the whole day and what a lovely bunch of people the museums team were; I especially enjoyed the sneaky peek into the stores.
I would like to see an exhibition on the LGBT+ History of Stockton on Tees.
Co-curated Community Exhibition ‘Free To Be Me’ at Preston Park Museum & Grounds
In response to the visit, and discussions with local communities we co-curated the ‘Free 2 Be Me’ exhibition with the Free to Be Me over 50s LGBT+ Group in Stockton. The exhibition which was hosted at Preston Park Museum November 2024 – March 2025 reflected topics meaningful to the group. We chose to work with this group as their stories are not currently represented in the collection and are at great risk of being lost. We also acknowledged that older people are at greater risk of feeling isolated, and that there are fewer inclusive spaces for them, feelings which members of the community shared with us directly.
Museum staff specialising in collections, engagement, and interpretation skills supported the group in the development of this exhibition, with themes and content chosen by group members.
December 2024 the museum hosted a special preview event for the communities who had been involved in creating the exhibition.
SYSTEMIC (Winners of the Catalyst Inclusion Award 2025) performed at the preview, before a special performance out on the Victorian street of the museum.
Communities visiting the Free To Be Me exhibition at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Communities visiting the Free To Be Me exhibition at Preston Park © Dave Charnley
Communities visiting the Free To Be Me exhibition at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Communities visiting the Free To Be Me exhibition at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Communities visiting the Free To Be Me exhibition at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
A person taking a photograph of Systemic Choir performing at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Systemic Choir performing at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Systemic Choir performing at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
Systemic Choir performing at Preston Park. ©Dave Charnley
A powerful exhibition providing greater representation for those who may have been previously excluded from museum spaces
Comment card from museum visitor
I love that the museum encourages critical thinking and inclusivity, it's refreshing to see a museum that represents the area and people in it. I love the exhibition.
Comment card from museum visitor.
I'm glad that there's an exhibition on this! Be who you are and don't let anyone say otherwise!
Comment card from museum visitor
“Was a great event for a mega important issue. Love performing part of SYSTEMIC and hope we can come back again to perform."
Member of SYSTEMIC
It’s been a joy and an honour to work with Hannah, Lucy and the team to create this representation for the Free To Be Me display. Being visible is vitally important in these testing days.
Ellie, founder of Free To Be Me and SYSTEMIC
I really enjoyed seeing the exhibition, a lot of work has gone into it and it's really thought provoking and up to date. We have shared the photos around the network and had some really nice responses.
Martin
It was a spectacular event.
Guest at the preview
Work with LGBT+ people in Prison
Following discussions with education staff at a local prison in 2025, it was felt that the Pioneers of Pride campaign should be continued in the prison with LGBT+ communities. This work included some LGBT+ history sessions, object handling and contemporary collecting of LGBT+ support leaflets, collected while attending a Pride event at the prison. The museum also collected a poem about gender identity.
These sessions were voluntary, drop-in sessions that had good engagement numbers, with people returning.
Positive mental health and wellbeing outcomes were identified in the sessions by participants themselves, as well as staff.
The museum was also engaging with a group they’ve historically not engaged.
Find out more about our previous work with Prisons here: Literacy Loans in Prisons – Tees Valley Museums
Collections Development Focus Group
The final strand of the campaign with Preston Park Museum & Grounds was to create a community focus group, who would have a say in the museums future collecting.
The group was intergenerational, with a mix of people we’d worked with previously from the Free To Be Me group, and new participants who responded to a public call out.
The focus group met over a series of 6 weeks, learned about the collections at the museum and about the work being done by the dynamic collections team to rationalise the collection. They were asked to think about objects in their own lives, and what they felt was important to Stockton, which opened deep conversation from each generation about how they felt about where they lived.
The group also fed into museum collections policy document, to ensure that future collecting is relevant to Stockton and its communities. They also made their own creative writing with a writer, which the museum hopes to display in the future. We’ve shared examples of their community poems below.
The following poems were created by writer Lizzie Lovejoy, with community members of the Pioneers of Pride focus group.
Narrated by Lizzie Lovejoy.
On Display
We Will, We Can, We Are – Preston Park
A participant of the focus group with a crochet bear from the museum collection.
A participant of the focus group holding a coin and badge from the museum collection.
A participant of the focus group with a Phantom of the Opera figurine from the collection.
Focus group members looking at paper resources.
Focus group members outside the chemist on the Victorian street at Preston Park Museum.
Focus group members looking at paper resources.
A focus group member looking at collections displayed at the museum.
I've enjoyed having a small community to come to every few weeks, I felt like I had a safe space.
Participant from the focus group.
This museum is working hard to change and be more open to new ideas.
Participant from the focus group.
Being part of this group has made me feel connected and seen.
Participant from the focus group.
I've really enjoyed sharing stories, thoughts and getting to know each other. Being part of this group has made me feel welcome.
Participant from the focus group.
Highlighting New Collections
Civil Service LGBT+ Network T-shirt (2025)
Paper bag from Who-Ray with Dalek drawn on (2024)
