Outburst Queer Arts Festival
Outburst is Belfast's festival of queer arts, building artistic networks and exploring what LGBTQIA+ culture means around the world. Since 2006, Outburst has grown from a small community event in Belfast, Northern Ireland to a celebrated festival of local and international queer arts, culture and ideas. Each year, British Council supports Outburst to invite international delegates to the festival and to programme international artists, resulting in new connections, projects and ways of working.Through this partnership, Outburst has worked with hundreds of artists, producers and writers in over 30 countries across four continents. Outburst runs 15-24 November 2024 in Belfast, UK. The full programme and more information can be found here.
Ireland Delegation
British Council Ireland is delighted to partner with Outburst Queer Arts Festival 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland to support visual artist, diversity, equity and inclusion advocate and writer, Pradeep Mahadeshwar, to attend. Pradeep will join other international artists at the Queer Arts Development Network gathering at Outburst from the 14-18 November 2024 and take part in the International Delegation Meeting (Friday 15 November), a closed session for delegates and local invited guests/ artists to share introductions and ideas. This international network has been developed over the past 9 years by Outburst and British Council and aims to support queer artists, producers and programmers to explore what ‘queer’ means to LGBTQIA+ artists and audiences around the world.
About Pradeep Mahadeshwar
I am Pradeep Mahadeshwar, originally from India and now an Irish citizen. I graduated from the Government Institute of Printing Technology, Mumbai, in 1996 and the Buckinghamshire New University’s MA Printmaking with distinction in 2011. I am a visual artist and an LGBTQ+ activist; storytelling, writing, illustrations and moving images are mediums. My work explores identities through the collection of stories, illustrations based on surreal-looking satires of sexual racism and meditative surreal moving images to fantasise alternative emotional landscapes with infinite new possibilities. Through my artwork, I am researching the effects of sexual racism on the mental and sexual health of Queer People Of Colour living in Ireland. Find out more here.
