“It would give me a chance to just exist as myself, which I feel I don’t get the chance to do much in everyday life.”
queer young person, April 2019
Launched in September 2020, Sanctuary is an arts organisation for LGBTQIA+ folx in Scotland. Our hope is to add solace, stimulation and safety for queer people and allies in Scotland…and to have a lot of fun doing it!
We’re passionate about amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices. We do this by creating artistic development opportunities for queer performance makers (of all ages and experience) and bringing the community together for events, workshops, performances and celebrations.
In our first year we partnered with Platform Easterhouse, GoMA Glasgow, SQIFF and engaged nearly 100 queer artists nationwide across 3 development programmes – showcasing a digital festival celebration of film screenings, talks and workshops in October 2021.
Since then Sanctuary has been collaborating with University West of Scotland, Edwin Morgan Foundation, Cumbernauld Theatre, National Museum of Scotland, Glasgow Connected Arts Network, Tron Theatre and Aberdeen Performing Arts to facilitate new engagement projects, artist development opportunities and performance events celebrating Scotland’s queer talents.
“I don't want a safe space.
I want the world to be a safe space.”
queer young person, April 2019
Sanctuary Co-Directors:
Annabel Cooper and Fraser MacLeod.
Sanctuary Associate Director:
Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh
Sanctuary Co-Founder/Associate Artist:
Drew Taylor-Wilson
Check out the video summary of our incredible pilot year below and scroll down further for a brief history of the project...
a brief history
Sanctuary Queer Arts has been in development for years. Fraser and Drew have worked across the UK and internationally delivering arts-in-education activity that stimulated the original idea for the project. After years of research and skills development [Phase 1], in 2019 Fraser and Drew received Creative Scotland project development funding to usher in the next phase of Sanctuary…
For Phase 2 the duo ventured across the pond to learn from Buddies in Bad Times, Canada – the world’s longest running queer building based organisation – celebrating pride 2019 in Toronto’s Gay Village. Visits were made to local queer festivals: Homotopia Liverpool, Curious Festival Newcastle, Outburst Belfast, TransVegas Manchester and the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Consultations were made with young people, artists and teachers, many hours were spent planning, and a third creative force was identified to make our dreams reality – the Annabel. Our learning and development objectives were fulfilled, evaluations done and then Ms ‘Rona hit…
And we all had to change our plans.
Our Phase 3, activity [August 2020 - April 2021] was supported by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development. This phase established Sanctuary’s digital real-estate, consolidating us as an organisation, facilitating the beginning of our first queer young company, piloting our newer artist programme and launching our first writer’s micro-commissions. We are now in Phase 4, equally pleased to be supported by the Open Fund and we are preparing for the culmination of our Young Company and Newer Artist performance outcomes, as well as a digital showcase of queer Scottish talent.
Sanctuary Queer Arts is proud to partner with Platform, Easterhouse who have supported the project since its inception.
Sanctuary Queer Arts is also a proud member of the Green Arts Initiative - a community of practice supporting Scottish arts organisations to reduce their environmental impact.
Sanctuary Queer Arts is broud to be completing the Bronze LGBT Charter Award from LGBT Youth Scotland.
