LJMU Special Collections & Archives are happy to announce that we have been successful in applying for a £3,000 Scoping Grant from The National Archives for a new collection, the papers of Gary Everett. This scoping grant provides six days of a consultant’s time to scope and report on the collection to aid further investigation and work into the collection, including the potential to apply for additional funding.

The papers of Gary Everett, Founder and former Artistic Director of LGBTQ+ arts festival Homotopia, contain a wealth of material relating to Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ arts, culture, club scenes and activism in the 1990s-2010s. The collection captures LGBTQ+ existence in Liverpool across three decades, recording ephemeral events and transient moments in the city’s queer life. The material also addresses gaps in archival representation of LGBTQ+ cultural experience beyond the political realm.

Gary Everett is currently the UK Creative Producer for Tom of Finland Foundation Los Angeles. He has a long history of creative work in the mainstream and underground artistic spheres in Liverpool but has also worked nationwide, and internationally.

You can read more about the TNA Scoping Grant, and other successful archive projects on their website here.

Christopher Olive, Assistant Archivist 2025