Homotopia, the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans’ (LGBT) combined arts organisation in the north of England, has been awarded 3 year funding following the solitary successful appeal to Arts Council England. This is in addition to grant support for this year’s festival which opens in November.

Liverpool based Homotopia applied to become a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) earlier this year along with over 1300 other arts organisations nationally. Only 695 applications were successful and 28 organisations complained – of these 28 only 3 complaints were upheld and reassessed. Homotopia, which was initially judged to be ineligible, was the only one of the final 3 to have the original decision overturned and become a NPO with 3 year funding from 2012.

Homotopia Director, Gary Everett is delighted with the decision;

“Over the last 8 years we have grown from an annual local arts festival into an organisation delivering a national and international programme of arts, social justice and education initiatives 365 days of the year. I believe this funding acknowledges the exceptional quality of the art we deliver and the valuable work we do to tackle Hate Crime, bullying and prejudice through Project Triangle. It reflects our commitment to increasing social cohesion through our engagement with diverse communities, young people and the elderly who would often otherwise feel excluded from arts venues or gay culture.

“With this support and the continuing support of Liverpool City Council we can engage with more artists, writers, producers, dancers and performers to reach new communities. This year’s festival programme already features an ecletic mix of world premieres by international artists, new work from local artists and more events in our burgeoning youth strand. We will continue to bring audiences to Liverpool and to export Liverpool internationally.”

Homotopia started in November 2004 with a handful of arts events and has grown to become a key feature of the cultural calendar. Previous participating artists have included; Sarah Waters, Nigel Charnock, Sadie Lee, David Hoyle, Gary Clarke and Armistead Maupin. Currently Homotopia is working with Turku, Finland, European Capital of Culture 2011 where it has co-curated a year long exhibition by Tom of Finland. Earlier this year Project Triangle took 8 young people to Warsaw and is in discussion with Gdansk to screen films the young people have made. Last year Homotopia took the Pansy Project to Istanbul, Turkey.