Case Study: Ri Baroche – Championing LGBTQIA+ Voices Through Art

Ri Baroche is a performer and community connector representing Southampton’s LGBTQIA+ community. Alongside creating safe spaces, such as an inclusive football group in Totton (Ri Baroche: Creating safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth – Southampton Forward), Ri has been central to many cultural projects in the city, including City Reflections and the Tapestry Music Festival.

City Reflections 2: Illuminating Southampton’s Stories

For the second phase of City Reflections, Ri worked with the City Gallery Archives to curate a projection exploring Southampton’s art collections. Collaborating with InFocus (a charity supporting young LGBTQIA+ people), Ri combined targeted outreach with a wider social media callout to engage the community.

12 participants visited the archives, discovering works and themes connected to identity and belonging.

A follow-up visit to the Gallery’s sculpture exhibition broadened perspectives on the city’s collections.

Ri then hosted a free creative writing workshop at October Books, where participants reflected on three key themes: “Strangers Finding a New Home”, “Generosity”, and “Creative Diversity.”

The aim is to transform this community writing into new video and audio recordings, to be woven into the final projection.

Focusing on LGBTQIA+ History
Ri centred the project on the legacy of Arthur Jeffress, an LGBTQIA+ collector who left his art collection to the Gallery. For Ri, this was about addressing a gap in LGBTQIA+ history:

Offering positive stories beyond narratives of secrecy or tragedy.

Recording lived experiences in Southampton, linked to the city’s art history.

Inviting the community into the gallery — echoing Jeffress’s own flamboyant invitations — ahead of its 2026 reopening.

Impact

“It was a real privilege to bring the community into the city’s art gallery, and to experience the joy and civic pride that it brought out of them.” – Ri

Ri also reflected on her own growth:

“I have grown in ability to use the visual arts in my work … it was a real learning experience and a boost in confidence to find I could apply my skills to a project that focuses on the visual medium.”

The project revealed unexpected positivity from Ri’s participants about Southampton’s cultural spaces, reinforcing the gallery as a place of community, growth, and belonging.