Now underway in Greenwich, Queer Migrations Festival runs until 9 August 2025, turning museums, parks, and public spaces into a living archive of queer migrant stories. Produced by Bold Mellon Collective and supported by Royal Museums Greenwich, the festival brings together exhibitions, live art, workshops, and community-led events through a month-long programme.

At its heart is a powerful question: what does it mean to move, and to be moved, as a queer person in a world shaped by borders?

A platform for queer migrant artists

Queer Migrations features an intergenerational group of artists with lived experiences of migration. They work across performance, installation, painting, sound, and community practice to express the fluidity of identity and the urgency of queer storytelling.

Visual artists include april forrest lin 林森, Elisia Brown, Elvira Pushkareva, Jae Lim, Lapis Al-Shammaa, Lenka Kalafutova, Misha Zakharov, Nat Sultan, Rishi Khurana, Tasalla Tabasom, and Yaya.

Performance artists include Abel Atsede, Chen Xu, Emilia Nurmukhamet, and Oscar Rodriguez.

The programme reframes queer migration not as crisis but as culture. Through collaborative work, personal narratives, and shared creative space, the festival invites reflection on how queerness moves across time, place, and generation.

What has already happened

The festival opened with a performance and community collage workshop on 6 July at Eltham Park South, as part of PARKSfest.
On 9 July, Dr Elvira Pushkareva led the opening lecture, Painting the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, exploring how colonial legacies continue to shape bodily autonomy and queer migrant visibility.

What is still to come

• Exhibition at Firepit Art Gallery
  Running until 9 August, this free exhibition presents new commissions by 11 artists working with queer and migratory themes. Open Tuesday to Saturday.

• Exhibition Launch Event (Thursday 17 July, 7 to 9pm)
  Live music, artist talks, and refreshments. BSL interpretation and sensory support available. Free with booking.
  👉 Book via: outsavvy.com/event/27929

• Workshop: Mapping Our Roots (Sunday 27 July, 2 to 5pm)
  A guided session with Touch Grass C.I.C. exploring ancestry, land, and identity. Hosted at Queen’s House.
  👉 Book via: outsavvy.com/event/27925

• Zine-Making Workshop (Saturday 2 August, 2 to 5pm)
  Hosted by Sold Out Publishing and Plan B, this hands-on event explores storytelling and print culture as tools of resistance and connection.
  👉 Book via: outsavvy.com/event/27474

• Closing Live-Art Performance (Saturday 9 August, 7 to 9pm)
  The final evening at the National Maritime Museum features new performances by Abel Atsede, Chen Xu, and Oscar Rodriguez. The event includes BSL interpretation, sensory space and access support.
  👉 Book via: outsavvy.com/event/27928

Made with care and community

The festival is conceived and curated by Emilia Nurmukhamet, co-artistic director of Bold Mellon Collective. Co-produced by Amy-Rose Edlyn and Dear Annie, who also designed the visual identity, Queer Migrations is supported by Royal Museums Greenwich, Firepit Art Gallery and Studios CIC, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Royal Greenwich Festivals.

At its core, Queer Migrations invites the public to imagine new ways of relating to borders, language, ancestry and place. It offers both a space for healing and a call for collective action, led by artists whose voices and visions deserve to be heard and held.

Learn more at boldmelloncollective.com/queer-migrations-festival

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📸 Follow the festival on Instagram: @boldmelloncollective

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