Revealing LGBTQ+ and Queer Histories
This exhibition has been co-curated with Jon Sleigh. We invited Jon to look at Leicestershire’s Museum Collections to explore LGBTQ+ connections and the potential to interpret our collection in new ways to allow us to connect with new audiences. Villiers Revealed is the culmination of a year of Jon working with Culture Leicestershire and we hope it is just the starting point of our journey to better represent LGBTQ+ lived experience, enriching our collections, the stories we tell and how we tell them.
Jon Sleigh, Learning Curator and Guest Curator of Villiers Revealed - Darling of the Stuart Court.
Jon immediately identified our portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham as having huge potential. Villiers was born in Leicestershire and his story is one of the most well-known in LGBTQ+ history:
'The 'discovery' of meeting the Villiers portrait was profound for me. George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham is famous within queer museology as the suggested lover/partner of King James I of England and VI of Scotland. In preparation for my queering the collections project, I spent time going through the records on Image Leicestershire seeking inspiration. One of the first pieces that came up on my search filter was the Villiers portrait - and I was utterly thrilled! It took a moment to recognise the handsome face of the Jacobean queer courtier, then the full magnitude of its capacity to engage with others started to dawn on me. This painting and the conversation around it is of national significance while being firmly linked to Leicestershire.'
‘To grow up and not see yourself represented in a museum you care about hurts. Museums are spaces for all our stories - yet continue to have gaps in how they are told. Gaps in seeing how you love, knowing there were others like you, how we express ourselves, and the universal truth that all our stories overlap.
LGBTQ+ and Queer stories in museums matter because we matter. These histories have often been misrepresented, hidden, and erased. Historically we often find LGBTQ+ lives presented in museums through the filter of those who simply never included lived experience.
Telling LGBTQ+ stories with dignity, passion and purpose uplifts so many different communities. It’s an act of celebration, recognition, defiance and reflection. Ultimately, it’s an act rooted in kindness and equity.
This exhibition – with queerness at its heart - is for everyone. Here you’ll find human stories of desire, politics, ambition, identity and belonging. It invites you to question who gets to tell stories in museums and how. Villiers himself shapes not just this museum collection, but Leicestershire history, and in turn international history and pop culture. Let’s tell his story, and ours together.’
Jon Sleigh, 2024