We are back! Suffolk Archives are excited to announce we will take part in OUTing the Past festival for the second time in 2022.

Suffolk Archives has developed a countywide programme of activities to engage more people than ever before with Suffolk’s archival heritage. One of the largest initiatives is ‘Sharing Suffolk Stories’, a range of projects which supports communities to explore more about the history of where they live, create their own responses to it through art, drama, exhibitions or digital media, and share their work as widely as possible.

Our Pride in Suffolk’s Past project enjoyed a huge success in 2021. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and dedicated volunteers, Suffolk Archives successfully delivered our Pride in Suffolk’s Past exhibition showcasing our work of hidden history of LGBTQ+ people in Suffolk and contemporary stories of the county’s LGBTQ+ community researched and collected through our archives. We would like to share our joy that the work of the volunteers has recently been recognised as joint winners of the Archives and Records Association (ARA) Archives Volunteer Award 2021.

With the growing public interest in LGBTQ+ history nationally and internationally, Suffolk Archives will carry on celebrating our past, preserving our present and looking towards our future. This year we are delighted to continue to take part in the OUTing the Past festival 2022 to uncover more hidden history of how past generations have experienced and documented their experiences through a period of monumental societal change towards sexuality and gender identity.