Press and Diversity

Some interesting things are going on at the House. First, to support Pride in London, Lauderdale House is conducting their 8th annual Pride in the House art competition. This allows professional artists in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community to submit their collection, with the 'winner' chosen for a private exhibition in the coming months (Lauderdale House, 2010). Last year's winner Cos Ahmet (2009) praised the House, saying that "Being awarded the prize of a solo exhibition is an accolade. This is a great opportunity for artists in the LGBT community to show their depth and creativity to a wider audience. Lauderdale House is an inspiring building, and gave me the opportunity to exploit the new work in my solo exhibition within its surroundings, and was well received not only by those who attended my private view, but also from the broader general public who use the House". This gave a great review of the House, and is now being used in the press release publicizing the event. To expand publicity rather than only advertising to the LGBT community, press releases have been posted on websites focusing on the arts. This allows for the event to be more inclusive while reaching a greater audience (Ives, 2010), giving the House a greater reach in to diverse communities as suggested in my previous blogs for diversity.
Another exciting event will come in the form of an exhibition of a Brazillian artist. Through research of Brazillian publications in London for the purpose of advertising the event, I found that her showing will be in conjunction with the Southbank Brazillian Festival (Southbank Centre, 2010). Furthermore, the Brazillian Embassy in London supports the Brazillian community by publicizing events right on their website (Embassy of Brazil, 2010). Maybe it's just me, but it feels like a very exciting time for the House in terms of providing a more diverse program. Through this, Lauderdale House may be able to establish relationships with a more diverse range of communities (Vaux, 2006), possibly giving them a new target market, increasing their visibility, and more importantly, continuing to include a greater range of communities in the House.



Embassy of Brazil. 2010. Events in the UK.[Online] Available at: http://www.brazil.org.uk/events/index.html [Accessed 30 April 2010].

Ives, K., 2010. Pride in the House. [Discussion] (Personal Communication, 30 April 2010).

Southbank Centre, 2010. Festival Brazil. [Online] Available at: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/festivals-series/festival-brazil [Accessed 30 April 2010].

Vaux, S., 2006. It’s all about developing relationships. Journal of Arts Marketing. 21: p. 8-9.