ALWAYS HERE is a socially engaged photography and heritage project. Through workshops, meetings, interviews, photoshoots, research and oral histories, participants have shared their experiences and defining life moments. Over the past two years, memories and lives shaped by changing social attitudes, political reform, and local and national events, have been explored and recorded. These stories reflect pride and resilience, as well as the realities of living through a time when homosexuality remained a criminal offence until 1967, the impact of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, and Section 28, which was not repealed until 2003.

Photography runs through our lives: it captures memories, reflects the present and becomes part of our shared cultural history. Archives are living records that help us understand the past and the world we inhabit today. It is fitting, then, that ALWAYS HERE will be exhibited and preserved in the city where it was created. At its heart is the belief that everyone should have the freedom to live authentically and express themselves truthfully and creatively. We hope these stories help shape a future rooted in inclusivity, equality, respect and creativity, enriching our communities and shared history.

This Autumn exhibitions are taking place as follows;

— Spode Museum – 19 September – 30 November

— The New Vic Theatre – 15 September – 12 October

— Hanley Library – 8 October – 30 November

— Stoke Library – 10 October – 16 November.

The project will also be launching a new publication which will feature a unique collection of historical pictures, untold stories and photography that illustrates LGBT+ lives and histories in Stoke-on-Trent and the wider North Midlands.

The project material will become a new LGBT+ public archive, the first in the city and wider region, that records these histories, a fitting legacy at the Stoke-on-Trent Archives Service.