Jack Gilbert (left), Executive Director of Proud Heritage, remarked: "Proud Heritage is seeking to reformulate how a museum can be in the 21st Century. The launch of the online museum is the first public step in a three-year journey to create a national museum reflecting British lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans history and cultural ancestry in all its rich diversity.
"This is more than just a staging post to creating a physical presence, though that is our goal. The internet creates new ways to collect, share and exhibit our own life experiences, local history and collective memory. Together. It will help develop professional and community networks, disseminate ideas and good practices, and help build regional collections. But most of all it makes collecting, interpreting and exhibiting a shared, interactive experience combining documents, objects and user generated content, including images and video."
"This is more than just a staging post to creating a physical presence, though that is our goal. The internet creates new ways to collect, share and exhibit our own life experiences, local history and collective memory. Together. It will help develop professional and community networks, disseminate ideas and good practices, and help build regional collections. But most of all it makes collecting, interpreting and exhibiting a shared, interactive experience combining documents, objects and user generated content, including images and video."
Launch
Proud Heritage kicks off at London launch
At the press briefing for Proud Heritage hosted at the Natural History Museum in London on 15 April 2008, leading figures in the heritage sector and the LGBT community came together to endorse the project.
These included Ben Summerskill, Director of Stonewall, Suzanne Keene, Head of Museum Studies programme UCL, Nick Poole, Director of the Collections Trust and Tony Tibbles, founder of the International Slavery Museum and Proud Heritage board member, and Brian Paddick, London Mayoral candidate (see video clips below).