Queer Tactics, Handwritten Stories: Disrupting the Field of Museum Practices

Abstract

Renaud Chantraine, co-Guest Editor of the present volume, initiated a conversation in March 2020 with Birgit Bosold and E-J Scott around their practices as museologists and activists, and centred around their experiences as directors and founders of two community-based museums focused on LGBTQI+ heritage. Bosold is member of the Board of Directors of the Schwules Museum in Berlin (opened in 1985), while Scott founded the Museum of Transology in the UK in 2017. Chantraine, an anthropologist specialised in the construction of LGBTQI+ heritage who is also an activist involved in the creation of an LGBTQI+ archive and cultural centre set to open in Paris, was informed and inspired by Bosold and Scott’s experiences. In the conversation, Bosold and Scott discuss strategies and processes they employed that museum professionals might learn from in conceiving their own LGBTQI+ heritage projects, as well as outline the conflicts and (self-)critiques they encountered along the way. The conversation is a reflection on their practices and how they were put into action. It has been edited and reshaped in consultation with the authors, following an initial video call.