On Sunday, Leeds Pride celebrated LGBT+ life in the heart of the city with thousands of people parading and partying in the annual event rooted in protest and love.
At Open Source Arts, we strive to celebrate joy and creativity in the LGBT+ community all year round by hosting a wide range of events dedicated to making space for queer creatives. We don’t take any credit for events not run by us but strive to facilitate and promote the incredible organisers leading LGBT+ events.
In previous years, we’ve worked with the brilliant queer party crew at Love Muscle to host their dance nights. The lovely people from Good Emotions recently put on an art market with live drag and performance art and the Bi+ Leeds Social Group brought some incredible musical talent and spoken word to our stage with their event Bi The Way. We also provide safe events for our trans friends which you can find out more about by getting in touch.
Our Welcome Policy at Open Source Arts guides our practice. We resolve to “Welcome people of any and all races, ages, sexualities, gender orientations and ability status, and create an environment free of prejudice based on ethnicity, nationality, class, gender, gender-presentation, language ability, asylum status or religious affiliation.” We take any case of discrimination in our buildings very seriously and will deal with any situations accordingly.
At our weekly team meetings, we host Welcoming Wisdom sessions which provide a space for uncovering unconscious bias and blind spots in our lives and work. Our team take an hour of paid time each week to reflect and learn about something outside of our lived experience which often includes gender and sexuality. We believe that by educating ourselves and each other, we can expand our awareness and create a better time for everyone.
Our Welcome practice is ongoing, and we want to make sure this policy is open to thoughts and opinions if there’s anything would benefit our community at Open Source Arts get in touch at info@opensourcearts.co.uk.
