Always on
This project successfully funded on 20th September 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Queer Salon MCR Venue Funding
Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us keep Queer Salon free by funding six monthly gatherings for queer creatives to share ideas, experiment and build community.
Queer Salon Manchester began with one question: where are the spaces for queer people to gather outside of nightlife?
Inspired by the artists' and literary salons of the past, we wanted to create a regular space where queer creatives could connect through curiosity not networking, to develop a sustainable practice away from competition, and to explore creativity without the pressure to produce polished outcomes.
Since launching in May, Queer Salon has brought together more than thirty queer creatives from across Manchester; the most exciting part has been the conversations. Together we've explored
- why we make things at all;
- whether creative process can be as valuable as finished work;
- how play, experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange can nourish our practices;
- and how we might build more generous, less transactional ways of supporting one another as creatives.
We are building a space where queer culture is something we make together rather than simply consume.
Our conversations are shaping what Queer Salon becomes. Alongside our monthly gatherings, we're:
- developing a reading group,
- exploring peer-led residencies,
- researching funding/residency surgeries,
- and, in the longer term, working towards an exhibition celebrating creative process itself: unfinished work, experiments, works in progress and intuitive making.
To make all this possible, we're raising £450 to cover venue hire for our next six gatherings (August - January, £75 per session).
Every donation, no matter the size, helps keep Queer Salon free to attend, removing cost as a barrier to anyone who wants to take part.
If you believe queer people need spaces to imagine new ways of creating together, please consider donating; we'd be incredibly grateful for your support.
Here's a recap of our first event to get a flavour of what we're about:
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made