Bishopsgate Institute: A cultural history of AIDS

Bishopsgate Institute has been documenting the history and lives of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK since 2011 when it became home to the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive. This is a national collection of over 300,000 press cuttings from the straight press covering all aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer experience from the late nineteenth century to the present. The institute will be using all its unique documentation for this course to explore how the cultural response to the AIDS pandemic - a devastating moment in Queer history - shaped Queer art and performance forever.