Mind the Gap - A Celebration of Queer Heritage is a pop up exhibition in partnership with Folkestone Museum to celebrate LGBTQ+ history month.

Art in Romney Marsh has commissioned copy portraits from Margate Pride that celebrate local queer creatives. The portraits are black and white, and based on 1920s photographs of key members of the local queer creative community, such as Radclyffe Hall, E.F. Benson, Bessie Smith, and Virginia Woolf.

Why these creatives?
They all lived, worked, and were inspired by towns and villages on Romney Marsh, in and around Kent, and into East Sussex.

Why Bessie Smith?
In the 1920s, everyone was listening to the music coming from America – namely jazz and blues. Many of those amazing musicians and singers, who were largely African American, were also queer.

Our partnership with Folkestone Museum is a chance to celebrate queer creatives that have local connections, while also honouring Folkestone’s queer history and heritage - celebrating such notable people as the writers Jocelyn Brooke, Laurence Dillon, and Daphne Du Maurier.

Many thanks to the portrait photographer, Elissa Cray and the brilliant volunteers who went above and beyond to fulfil the creative idea of the copy portrait commission.

Join Folkestone Pride and journalist Simon Richmond on a guided walking tour of Folkestone's Queer History for LGBTQ+ History Month.

Saturday February 24th - meeting at 10.30am for an 11am start, outside Orchard Lane Coffee House in Sandgate. There will be a stop for refreshments at the Green Room at the Grand Hotel and a chance to view the Mind the Gap exhibition at Folkestone Museum.

Register your interest here: A Walking Tour of Folkestone’s Queer History

The Mind the Gap project is funded by The Heritage Fund