Art organisation drops museum partner from LGBTQ+ project after ‘misinformation’ spat

A museum has been pulled from an LGBTQ+ history project by its partner after false information led to “bad publicity”.True’s Yard Fisherfolk Museum, in Lynn, says it wishes arts organisation Collusion “well” after splitting from the government-funded history project Queer Stories of Lynn.The organisations were set to be partners for the reality trail that explores the LGBTQ+ background of the town, however, True’s Yard has now been removed from the duo following claims that Collusion and Historic England published a press release to media outlets that the museum had “raised concerns” with.

True’s Yard said it started to receive complaints from stakeholders and volunteers after an article, that the organisation has labelled as “defamatory”, was published by the Sunday Telegraph in November in which the false information was used.“We contacted Collusion for an explanation and made a post on our social media channels correcting the misinformation,” the museum said in its December report.“This, remarkably, did not go down well with Collusion who seemed surprised at our defending ourselves.” The false information in question stated that there would be a permanent display at True’s Yard at the end of the project, something the museum said it had not agreed to because it has to adhere to the Museums Association Code of Ethics.“After an email exchange, Collusion made the decision to proceed with a different project partner – we wish them well,” True’s Yard added. Collusion has since confirmed the separation in a statement released on Friday, which said: “We have received strong positive support for this project, including from the local partners who we will be working with.“We had initially planned to work with True’s Yard on Queer Stories of Lynn but they are no longer connected with the project.“We hope to work with them again in the future.” Historic England, a government heritage department, also faced scrutiny over the project after giving £15,000 of funding to it as part of a grant programme, however, it has stood its ground by saying there are no plans to cancel the project.“This project is still going ahead but there won’t be artwork displayed at True’s Yard Museum as part of the project,” a spokesperson said.“Young people will create an augmented reality trail through King’s Lynn centre exploring the queer histories of the town that will connect to a new artwork – what form this artwork takes will be in the hands of the young people.”