A Queer Night At The Museum
Gender Stories Exhibition Opening Night

Join us for an unmissable museum late to celebrate the opening of groundbreaking new exhibitions Gender Stories and The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers - with a night of performances, DJs, dancing, fashion, and art!

For one night only, Queer Heritage South is taking over spaces across the museum!

This is your chance to get an exclusive first look at the Gender Stories and The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers exhibitions in what’s sure to be an unforgettable night… A Queer Night at the Museum!

Live performances by Stainton and Peake, Shelly Grotto aka The Drag Files, Cairo Nevitt, Zaki Musa!
Compered by Rhys’s Pieces!
Wearable art fashion show by Odd Fabrication!
Photobooth by Photoworks
Badge making with Rowan & Laurie
Plus DJs, dancing, and tours!

Confirmed line up, with more to be announced:

Drag Files by Shelly Grotto & Bob Chicalors
@shellygrotto
Drag queen Shelly Grotto and her assistant Bob Chicalors are clocking in for the night shift at Brighton Museum to conduct a place-based Drag Audit for the G.E.N.D.E.R Dept (Geographically Endorsed National Drag Exemplar Register). Roaming the Gender exhibition, they gather hearsay, rumours and gossip about the Brighton drag scene, inviting visitors to collaboratively dream up the ultimate Brighton drag performer. Expect playful encounters and curious questionnaires as you add your voice to a growing drag dossier!

Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers Exhibition Tour with Alf Le Flohic
@alfleflo
In the 80s and 90s it was a common sight to see groups of men in leather wandering between bars in the St James Street area of Brighton. Despite the official archive of the Sussex Lancers being destroyed, Alf Le Flohic has pieced together their history from private collections and archive material. Join Alf on a tour of the Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers exhibition and find out what those naughty gay bikers really got up to. Photographer Antony Edwards will also give us a glimpse into the contemporary world of Leathermen South.

Cairo Nevitt
@cairo_leon
Cairo Nevitt is a Caribbean–English trans man whose work spans fitness, media, advocacy, and the arts. In 2018, he became the first openly transgender man featured in Muscle & Fitness UK. He continued to break new ground in 2022 by securing three bodybuilding titles across major European federations. As a former Head Coach for Not a Phase’s Misfits programme, Cairo has supported thousands of trans individuals in their fitness and wellbeing. A professional actor and award-winning poet/filmmaker, he also appeared in Channel 4’s The Making of Me and has served as the face of global campaigns. A St. Mary’s graduate, he’s a high-impact speaker on inclusion, resilience, and trans wellbeing.

Practice 1 by Stainton and Peake
@evestainton @florence_peake
Practice 1 is a formal task of attempting to remain interlocked at the crotch. Eve Stainton and Florence Peake engage in ongoing physical connection and negotiation to reflect on notions of futility, commitment, need, love, difference, determination, strife and surrender. Practice 1 is an extracted movement score from their earliest collaborative performance project that began in 2017. It is now re-contextualised and placed in relation to different architectures and locations that intervene as both obstacles and enablers to the practice.

OddFabrication
@oddfabrication
The incredible creation that is Odd Fabrication is bringing you a once-in-a-lifetime workshop for A Queer Night at the Museum! Take your wildest dreams in this strange and whimsical two-hour workshop where you will embrace being playful, maximalist, colourful and textural to make your very own costume accessory. When you're done with your creation, you will strut your stuff down the museum runway in the Gender Stories fashion show!

Our creations are often made up of repurposed materials, as sustainability is a core element of our work. With a decade of experience in the visual arts, our commissions have ranged from theatre shows, immersive club nights, alternative art exhibitions, music festivals and performance events. We create bespoke costumes and garments, art installations, event dressing and decor for queer nightlife events. We have exhibited multiple pieces with the renowned London art collective ‘Bad Art’ and designed all the installations at ‘Camp Kindred’ festival 2025. We have created bespoke costume pieces for drag artists and performers notably for the winner of Brighton’s Big Drag Pageant, and collaborated on show stopping pieces on the most recent series of RuPauls Drag Race.

RhyssPieces
@rhysspieces_
RhyssPieces is a London-based, international, award winning l queer performance artist, drag performer, cabaret producer and burlesque artist who has been making waves in the city's vibrant arts scene for the past 10 years. RhyssPieces uses their art to explore issues of gender, sexuality, identity and race creating work that is both political and fun. You're going to want a Piece of Rhys

Automated Visions by Zaki Musa
@zackkattackked
Automated Visions is an exploration and representation of queer bodies through the lens of technology and generative AI. It examines the idea of technology as neutral, illuminating its potential to both shape and reflect censorship societal norms and biases. The experimental mixed-reality performance showcases the queer body through pole dance, combined with live images using generative AI, highlighting a narrative of queer shame to future queer liberation.

videoclub
@videoclub_uk
videoclub presents a selection of contemporary short artists’ film and video that explores the fluid and evolving nature of gender, identity, and the body. Bringing together UK and international perspectives, the programme reflects on how personal histories, cultural memory, and lived experience shape our understanding of queerness and selfhood.

Across documentary, experimental and narrative forms, these works consider themes of belonging, intimacy and transformation. The programme invites audiences to encounter a range of moving image practices that challenge assumptions and celebrate diverse ways of being - aligning with Gender Stories’ wider exploration of gender as lived, shared and continually unfolding.

Where: Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
When: Friday February 6th
Times: 7:30pm until 11pm
Tickets: £12/£15

Queer Heritage South is a cornerstone of the work of Brighton-based LGBTQIA+ cultural producers Marlborough Productions, made possible with National Lottery Heritage Fund.