ABOUT
Queer Youth Art Collective (QYAC) has run workshops for LGBTQ young people 18-30 since August 2019. The project delivers newly commissioned workshops by LGBTQ artists and youth forums for attendees to discuss their practice and socialise. These alternate weekly on Sundays .
Our primary aims are to challenge isolation, provide free and engaging arts workshops and build skills and infrastructure for a resilient, peer-led LGBTQ arts and education culture in London and throughout the UK.
We currently run 2 groups: ONLINE on ZOOM & IN PERSON From Queer Circle in Greenwich London.
As of April 2026, QYAC is now entirely volunteer-led.
QYAC STEERING GROUP:
PHYLLIDA JACOBS
They/SheMarketing
Phyllidais a queer autistic artist and writer. She has attended QYAC since 2020, which helped her formalise her art practice. She has 8+ years of experience working in comms, currently working as a charity communicator for Inclusion London, a Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation.
DEMELZA MONK
They/SheCoordination
Demelza is a multidisciplinary creative based in South Wales. They work mainly within the world of theatre and events, with a focus on creative access and disability arts. They are co-founder of disabled-led collective Same Hat Theatre.
JULES MCGEE-RUSSELL
They/ThemCoordination
Jules is a creative facilitator, librarian-in-training, and carer. They create engagement between communities and archives, and work in the intersection between arts and creative health. They ran QUEERCIRCLE’s Queer Carers online programme, and currently work in Bodleian libraries.
ZÉPHYR
She/HerMarketing
MYLO CASTAGNARO
CoordinationQYAC DIRECToRS:
BECCA THOMAS
Co-directorshe/her
Becca Thomas is an arts & cultural worker based in London.
Alongside Co-Directing Queer Youth Art Collective, she works with border abolition design agency Migrants in Culture, and hosts with Queer Social Dreaming Matrix.
DEX GRODNER
Co-directorthey/them
Dex is an arts producer, drag cabaret artist and theatre maker. They creative director of the queer, Jewish cabaret Homos and Houmous.
Dex has performed at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, VFD, Tate Britain and Queer Spirit Festival and given talks on trans inclusion and theatre practice at Hackney Showrooms, Hampstead Theatre, Ovalhouse and RADA.
FRED LANKA
Co-directorhe/they
Fred is a ceramicist and illustrator whose designs can be seen throughout the nightlife scenes of London, Birmingham and Stockholm.
Fred co-founded Queer Youth Art Collective with art therapist Susy Langsdale in 2019.