| Description | The collection includes:
• Papers associated with Everett’s career as Artistic Director at Homotopia festival, including negotiations to become the UK’s first council-funded LGBTQ+ festival in 2004.
• Papers related to other LGBTQ+ cultural events and venues, such as The Masquerade 1992-1993, and KooKoo and Rosary Club, 2001-2004.
• Papers associated with Liverpool LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Phil Johnson.
• Promotional material associated with Homotopia and other LGBTQ+ cultural events, such as posters, flyers, leaflets, advertisements, and digital material.
• Photographic prints and negatives.
• Records produced by or in association with LGBTQ+ artists and exhibitions of local, national, and/or international renown, such as original artwork and reproductions in a mixture of formats. This includes records of international projects, such as the cultural exchange with young LGBTQ+ people in Poland.
• Digital audio-visual material including films produced by artists, and recordings of live performances.
• Audio interview recordings with LGBTQ+ campaigners, artists, and people associated with LGBTQ+ clubs and events in and around Liverpool, including people who are sadly no longer alive.
• A series of unusual 60x40” hand screen-printed posters. |
| AdminHistory | Gary Everett was a founder and former Artistic Director of LGBTQ+ arts festival Homotopia, established 2005. Homotopia was the first council-funded UK LGBTQ+ arts festival and the first LGBTQ+ festival in the North West of England. Gary Everett is currently the UK Creative Producer for Tom of Finland Foundation Los Angeles and has a long history of creative work in the mainstream and underground artistic spheres in Liverpool, nationwide, and internationally. Alongside his LGBTQ+ artistic and cultural connections, Everett also has connections to many of the Liverpool theatres, such as the Unity Theatre, Liverpool Everyman Theatre, and the Liverpool Playhouse. |
| CustodialHistory | The majority of this collection was kindly donated to LJMU Special Collections & Archives in 2024 and 2025 by Gary Everett, with additional contributions kindly made by Mark Edwards and Andy Hicks in 2025. |