Queer Britain, the UK’s first and only LGBTQ+ museum, is pleased to announce a new installation, Top, by Claye Bowler, opening 10 September 2025.

This exhibition, disguised as a museum store, uses Bowler’s experience as a museum registrar to create an archive of his seven-year journey through the UK’s healthcare system to access gender-affirming top surgery – from the artist’s first visit to a GP to his recovery after surgery revisions.

Comprising drawings, films, photographs, letters, sculptures, and collected objects, the installation explores the political priorities of museum collecting, entering the emotions and physicality of being trans into a fictionalised archive.

Having been debuted at the Henry Moore Institute in 2022, different elements of Top are now in the collections of Arts Council England and the Wellcome Collection. This display, which brings together the full installation for the first time since it was originally shown, is supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund. Created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund, the Weston Loan Programme is the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable smaller and regional museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.

Claye Bowler, artist, said: “When creating Top, I initially thought it was about dysphoria, but through sharing it and engaging with visitors during its first showing, I realised it’s actually a celebration of being trans and overcoming struggle. I’m excited to share the work again with Queer Britain visitors, allowing people to experience this joy again. The work also comments on queerness in a museum context, of the purpose of museums, and of collecting objects. As the first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ stories, Queer Britain offers the perfect context for this work to resonate and question these ideas.”

Andrew Given, Chief Executive of Queer Britain, said: “We are delighted to bring this important work to London for the first time, and for our visitors to experience a story of trans joy. A celebration of the trans community is needed right now – their voices are being silenced, and their right to exist peacefully in society is being challenged. Trans rights are human rights, and the community will always have a place at Queer Britain Museum”

Sophia Weston, Deputy Chair of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund empowers smaller museums to tell compelling stories through important loans which have relevance to their audiences, so we are delighted to support this installation at Queer Britain which allows London museum-goers to experience this work in person for the first time.”