Fierce Queens: Unframed, Unstitched... Unapologetic!

Workshops, drop-in activities and gallery takeovers

Queer History Club Takeover

Undercroft 

The Queer History Club takes over the Undercroft with temporary tattoos, info-desk shenanigans, zines and a new research guide, alongside a participatory art performance by E. M. Parry. 

Explore the Queen’s House with guided tours curated by HRH Aphrodite and Ess Grange, and uncover the queer stories at the heart of the site. 

Instagram: @NMMqueerhistoryclub @E_M_Parry

Love Letters with The National Archives 

King’s Writing Closet/Outer Closet 

Discover queer love letters from The National Archives and find out how same-sex couples defied the law to meet in the Roaring Twenties. Then have a go at making your own coded lonely-hearts advert or write a letter to someone you love. 

Instagram: @NationalArchivesUK

Weight of Waiting by Bold Mellon Collective

Van de Velde Studios 1

Emerging from the Queer Migrations 2025 festival comes a durational ritual, supporting soothing through feeling-focused craft. Beads - scattered like secrets - are gathered slowly into words that call back to queer histories, summoning inspiration. Audiences are invited to join and create their own small talisman, or to sit and rest as Bold Mellon Collective guide this gently mysterious space.

Bold Mellon Collective are an arts collective dedicated to amplifying intersectional queer and migrant stories through dynamic, community-focused performances, workshops and events.

Instagram: @Boldmelloncollective

Badge-Making Workshop 

Undercroft 

Inspired by the queer community’s rich history of DIY badge making, design or collect a custom badge using upcycled materials to commemorate Fierce Queens and celebrate queerness in all its beauty. 

Badges have long been used to signify queer identity and community. Decorate your badge with symbols and slogans that make you feel seen and adorn every outfit with your piece of art!

Pre-drinks for the Revolution: A Queer South Asian Gathering

King’s Bedchamber

Curated and hosted by Dhaga, this gathering centres queer and trans South Asian art, kinship and celebration. Think queer mehndi night meets pre-drinks, meets your best friend’s living room.

This is a space that honours transition, reclamation and connection. Throughout the evening you’ll find gentle making circles that hold our wishes, histories, griefs, joys and dreams. A digital showcase of queer South Asian art by artists in our community will surround the room, transforming it into an immersive landscape that celebrates our community.

There will also be space for gender expression and adornment, for people of all genders, a trans+ centred space to explore euphoria, fluidity and the in-between. Come for ten minutes or stay as long as you like.

About Dhaga

Dhaga is the South Asian collective known for curating critically engaged exhibitions and intimate gatherings that people return to - drawn not just by the art, but by the feeling of home they find within it. Through exhibitions, art fairs, murals, workshops and talk shows, Dhaga creates space for dialogue, experimentation and visibility within the creative industry for South Asians.

Instagram: @Dhaga___

Shatter the Frame 

Governor’s Parlours

Create a queer miniature painting, silhouette portrait or cross-stitch slogan... and then shatter the frame.

Meditation session

Van de Velde Studio 3

Join us to learn and practice meditation, breathwork and grounding techniques

The Stitching Chamber

Queen's Presence Chamber

Join queer, disabled textile artist and 2025 Queer Britain Art Award finalist Philip Jack Bray for an interactive, drop-in workshop, looking at how threads can be used to assert, define and reclaim identities.

Showing their work as inspiration and sharing some simple sewing techniques, your stitches will contribute to a communal record of Fierce Queens.

Instagram: @Onehanduk

Migration Museum gallery takeover

The Eyal Ofer Gallery

Join the Migration Museum team to explore the LGBTQIA+ migration stories they have shared and gathered through their exhibitions so far. They invite you to add your own stories that can become part of their collection through a drop-in story-sharing workshop.

You'll also have the opportunity to find out about their current and future work and help build the migration stories that visitors can learn from through the Migration Museum for years to come.

They are joined by artists Kyoung Kim and Imogen Patel, who will host their own workshops alongside the Migration Museum:

Queer/ing Family Trees hosted with Kyoung Kim

What does your queer family look like? Join us for an interactive workshop to map out your chosen families and reflect on the paths you’ve taken to create them. This session is facilitated by Dr Kyoung Kim, an artist, researcher, and collective member of 'Queer' Asia.

This event is open to all, as those who make up our chosen families come in all shapes/sizes/identities, and we take this opportunity to recognise, honour, and celebrate the diversity within your communities of acceptance, whatever they may be.

Postcard making workshop with Imogen Patel

This drop-in workshop invites you to design your own identity postcards, using drawing and collage to explore the intersections of queerness, migration, and cultural heritage.

You can create a postcard to send to someone else, or to yourself, as a reflective keepsake connecting identity, memory, and movement.

Imogen Patel is a London-based artist and workshop facilitator whose work explores identity, heritage, and the lived experiences of second-generation immigrants. Her practice brings together textiles, cultural motifs, and personal narratives to examine how we take up space within diasporic and queer communities.

Instagram: @MigrationMuseum