Our Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours explore the spectrum of identities that exist across time, place and culture in the University of Cambridge Museums.
Since 2018, the Bridging Binaries team of volunteer guides have been sharing their personal selection of fascinating stories about gender and sexual identity through a range of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-related objects from across our Museums.
How do labels and categories affect the stories we choose to tell, or how we connect with each other? How do they affect our interaction with the natural world, and how we imagine the future?
Each tour is unique as specially trained volunteer tour guides put their own personal spin on their tour.
Taking inspiration from original material researched by Dan Vo and Ellie Armstrong in 2018 alongside University of Cambridge Museums staff, the tours are updated and researched by Museum staff and volunteers.
Join a tour
The Museum of Classical Archaeology, the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and the Museum of Zoology are currently running LGBTQ+ Tours. Find out more and book your place:
- Pride in Nature LGBTQ+ Tours - Museum of Zoology
- Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours - Museum of Classical Archaeology
- Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours - Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Interested in becoming a volunteer tour guide?
Opportunities to join our friendly group of tour guides will be advertised on our Volunteer Makers page.
In 2020, the tour guide team was awarded a Through the Door Award at the SHARE Museums East Volunteer Awards, and shortlisted for Volunteer Team of the Year at the national Museums + Heritage Awards.
Discover more
- Head over to our Discover page to explore some of the stories from the tours, presented by the Bridging Binaries guides.
- Listen to audio labels created by our guides on our SoundCloud page.
- Watch a series of video tour snippets on YouTube.
- Hear from our guides in their own words what the tours mean to them on our Collections in Action blogs: Hadrian, Antinous and Me and Bridging Binaries in the Animal Kingdom.
- If you are interested in creating a similar tour at your museum or heritage site, read about the development of the project in blogs from our team:
Bridging Binaries: reflections on the pilot (March 2019)
Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours: where are we now? (June 2020)
