THE RAINBOW ARTS TRAIL
LGBT Foundation’s public art trail celebrating LGBTQ+ art and artists, taking over central Manchester from May to September 2025
Curated by LGBT Foundation and spread across Manchester Picadilly, Kampus, the Iconic Gay Village and more, this free public art trail celebrates the power of LGBTQ+ voices and the positive impact of queer hope and joy, through photos, illustrations, sound installations and other creative works dotted across Manchester!
Now, we’re marking this incredible milestone with The Rainbow Trail — a public art trail across Manchester celebrating 50 years of queer hope, joy, and progress.
Explore the trail your way
Whether you’re exploring solo, with friends, or as a family day out, the Rainbow Arts Trail is a joyful and powerful celebration of LGBTQ+ creativity.
Ready to start your journey?
Piccadilly Station and Piccadilly Bridge
Mancsy
Piccadilly Place
Scot Cunningham
Jack Jameson
Helen Constantinou
Colony
Mancsy
Scarlett Novoa
Kampus Garden
Jack Jameson
The Butch Order
Aimee Linfield
Rainbow & Co
Ella Whelan
Ben Saunders Art
Kampus Businesses
Jenny Leonard (Nells Pizza)
Jo Rickart (Nells Pizza – TEMP)
Nevaeh Willis (Great North Pie Co)
Gill Price-Collinson (Barkside)
TBC – Pollen
TBC – Madre
Seesaw
Sam Bonser
Josie McCusker
Jasmin Issaka
Patrick He (Temp)
Manchester Art Gallery
Dan Webber
The Gay Village
Kay Fullbrook (Velvet Hotel)
Chloe Roberts (Velvet Hotel)
Lynne Jones (Velvet Hotel)
DomNInk (The Church)
Jack Jameson (Leven Hotel)
Nick Maynard
(Leven Hotel)
Taofique Folarin
(Leven Hotel)
The Gay Village
Scot Cunningham (The Cockatoo Club)
JustJake / Jake Lomax (The Eagle)
Dr. Mark Perera (Clonezone)
Alex Thomas (OnBar)
Taofique Folarin (OnBar)
Jasmin Issaka (New Union)
TBC – (Thompsons Arms)
Scot Cunningham (The Village Chippy)
Devon Short (Richmond Tea Rooms)
Celebrate, explore and connect with the LGBTQ+ community—one colourful step at a time.
Ben Saunders Art is a queer ceramicist, illustrator and events curator based in Manchester, specialising in creating work that celebrates transgender and queer bodies.
Through his work he strives to create a space for people to feel represented within art and feel comfortable to embrace their bodies, away from judgement or expectation. Ben also facilitates queer and trans life drawing sessions in Manchester, with tickets available through his Instagram.
These are relaxed sessions for all abilities with diverse models. Ben also co-founded Manchester Queer Art Market in 2022 which continues to run regular markets in venues around the city centre.
Instagram: @bensaunders.art
Shop: www.bensaundersart.co.uk
Manchester Queer Art Market Instagram: @mcrqueerartmarket
Dan Webber (he/him) is an award-winning LGBTQ+ poet, promoter and producer based in Derby. He has appeared at Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as part of the 25th Birthday Celebrations for Leicester Comedy Festival. Poetry collections include ‘Genre Fluid’ and ‘The Derby Witness’, both published by Big White Shed, and held within The National Poetry Library.
Dan is the Outreach Co-ordinator for Nottingham Queer Arts Collective, founder of Derby and Derbyshire Queer Arts Collective and a Co-Director of Derby Poetry Festival.
Instagram: @imgenrefluid
“I’ve been writing a lot about growing up recently, and what we see and experience as children, and how this shapes the people we become. ‘Toothbrush’ is based on conversations with my parents and is a poem about how society can shape expectations of young people before they are given the time to learn who they are.” Dan Webber, March 2025
Shop: www.bensaundersart.co.uk
Manchester Queer Art Market Instagram: @mcrqueerartmarket
Devon Short is an award winning non-binary illustrator, animator and comic creator.
They’ve worked on a range of creative projects for the BBC, The Jim Henson Company and Manchester City Council. Their history of passion projects is vast and includes titles such as Dead Nipples, Fortunate Frogs and now Living Scars.
With first-hand understanding, they portray the beauty and nuances of trans experiences through visual art and storytelling. Their passion for compelling stories is clear through their narrative work, and has garnered one RTS award to date, as well as a handful of nominations.
Instagram: @wackydoodledevon
Shop: www.wackydoodledevon.com/shop
Website: www.wackydoodledevon.com
DOM&INK is a freelance illustrator and author from Bolton, via Narnia. They love to create work with themes around queerness, identity and mental health with a splash of drag, horror and pop girly icons.
Throughout their years illustrating, Dom has worked with and created artwork for Tinder UK, Bumble, Little Mix, iWeigh, BBC, Lenovo, Logitech and more. Dom also was the official content illustrator for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1-5 (and Vs The World S1). Something they still pinch themselves about daily.
Dom is currently working on their first graphic novel, ‘Queens of the Crypt’ for Penguin Workshop. Set for release in 2026.!
Warning artwork contains Sexual Content (+18)
Doctor Gay UK is the social tag for Dr. Mark Perera (he/him). Dr. Mark is an actively practicing GP in London UK with a specialist interest in LGBTQ+ Health and he is also a queer content creator.
Dr. Mark’s projects are all centred around being the type of doctor he wished he and all queers had growing up. He proudly represents the intersectionality of being a person of colour and queer and a healthcare professional because lived experience helps all communities feel seen and heard.
His mission is 3 fold: educating, de-shaming and spreading queer joy!
Instagram: @doctorgayuk
Tiktok: @doctorgayuk
Website: www.doctorgayuk.com
My name is Ella Whelan, I am a film student currently studying film and media at The BRIT School and next year I will go to Pinewood Studios for a screenwriting course. Since I was a little girl I was fascinated by the world of cinema and the wonderful stories it encapsulates. I decided that I was going to become a filmmaker in the summer of 2021 when I came up with my first plot line completely by accident; since then, I’ve been hooked on creating stories to share with everyone.
YouTube: @ellawhelanfilms
From a young age I was always taking photographs, from being the unofficial family photographer to documenting road trips, everyday life around me and anything and everything that attracted my attention. All my images have, so far, remained in my own personal archive, just building up over the years. When I retired and decided to study for a degree that the opportunity came to examine and use my own collection. As part of my final project for an M.A. in Contemporary Fine Arts, I have been reviewing and repurposing images taken of Pride and Protest Marches in the late 1980’s.
Instagram: @constantimagery
Website: Helen Constantinou
Jack Jameson is a mixed-media artist based in Manchester, whose work explores queerness, identity, and storytelling through a fusion of digital and analog techniques. Their multidisciplinary practice spans photography, film, design, editing, animation, 3D modelling, styling, and prop-making, to imagine characters and environments that exist within otherworldly narratives and satirical interpretations of queer identity.
At its core, their work is an exploration of gender expression, shaped by influences from futurism, dreamscapes, fashion imagery, music, and queer culture. Through surreal and speculative worlds, they examine ideas of transmutation, faith, technology, and community, deconstructing societal norms in the process.
Instagram: @jackwjameson
Jenny Leonard is a live scribe artist drawing and sketching at meetings and conferences, both virtually and in person. She also paints murals and site-specific public art on art trails across the UK. She is based out of Grit Studios in Manchester but will travel far and wide for the right projects and big blank walls! You can see her local mural work at the Great Northern Warehouse and paintings for sale up at The Counter House in Ancoats.
Instagram: @JennyLeonardArt
Website: www.jennyleonardart.com
Josie McCusker is a Manchester-born and bred Design & Technology teacher with a lifelong love of crafting and creativity. This marks her first public exhibition, showcasing work that blends her carpentry skills with playful imagination. Her art celebrates childlike joy through fun, uplifting pieces made from materials like plywood, textiles, and paint. As an out lesbian educator, Josie proudly supports LGBTQIA+ youth, offering visibility, guidance, and a safe space in and beyond the classroom. Her work is a tribute to her inner child; messy-handed, wide-eyed, and endlessly curious. Her work is a celebration of making simply for the love of it.
My name is Lynne Jones (she/her). I am a cisgendered therapist with a special focus on sex, identity and relationships. I trained with the LGBT Foundation and I am a lecturer in counselling, a Leatherman and a transgressive poet.
I am an advocate for transgender rights and use poetry for personal exploration and to develop training material for therapists’ continuous professional development, with a broader goal of improving engagement, inclusivity and effectiveness when working within the LGBT community. I also run poetry workshops that explore marginalisation.
I am proud to demonstrate allyship to the LGBT community in 2025.
Website: www.unconditionalpossiblegirl.com
Nevaeh Willis is a young artist working with Venture Arts where she has experimented with photography, paint, print making and ceramics. She works mainly in digital illustration, working on an iPad to create bold, vibrant text-based artworks.
One such piece was commissioned by ethical cosmetics company, LUSH, who have used Nevaeh’s artwork to decorate one of their gift tins.
Nevaeh’s work was selected for the 2023 Manchester Open exhibition at HOME and she has also exhibited at The Lowry too.
‘Having my work in the LGBT Foundation Rainbow trail makes me feel happy and calm. I have been to pride before a few times with my family and I know my brother will be really proud and happy for me.’
Patrick He, a queer Chinese artist, finds inspiration in the beauty, desire, and pain woven into both people and nature. Using delicate dots and lines, he crafts intricate fantasy worlds where repetition and detail transform into dream-like expressions. Through his art, he constructs an intimate visual language that blurs reality and imagination, drawing viewers into a world of contemplation and emotion.
Instagram: @patrickhedesign
Website: www.patrickhe.co.uk/
Sam Bonser is an Illustrator and Animator based in Manchester with a passion for atmospheric visual storytelling. Their practice is heavily influenced by observation, site- specific drawing and recordings, capturing the magic of everyday life. Sam explores the characteristics and unique stories of places, focusing on their history, people and everyday beauty and how all these things combine to make a somewhere into where it is. Their illustrations and animations are often experimental and layered, using field recordings and sketches from on site to inform the final outcomes.
Instagram: @sambonserart
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SamBonserArt
Website: https://sambonser.cargo.site
UK-based, Colombian multidisciplinary artist exploring the world through photography, video, illustration and design. My craft invites to observe and reflect on topics from social justice, to nature conservation and anti-speciesism. I delve into visual storytelling featuring people, but also wild and urban animals–the latter usually around a concept that can also relate to human interactions. My intention is to bring people closer to their more perceptive, compassionate side, displaying a strong emotion, evoking a memory or even providing a message. I believe this opens minds and gives way to a more empathic and fulfilled society.
Instagram: @Scar.Rev
Website: www.scarlettnovoa.com
Taofique Folarin (TAF) is a Jamaican-Nigerian Afro-queer artist and activist from the West Midlands. His vibrant work explores themes of healing, mental health, and identity. TAF’s practice is rooted in truth, authenticity, and freedom, all reflecting his heritage. With an investigative, instinctive, and divinely guided approach to art, he challenges conventions by drawing on his lived experiences and vulnerability. Beyond struggle, there is joy. There is healing. This is transformation.
Louise Dalgleish’s work reframes representation through a lesbian perspective, focusing on the
often overlooked lives of marginalised individuals- whether they’re from religious backgrounds,
homophobic households, or are the minority in queer spaces. Inspired by the defiance of 80s/90s
dyke culture, Louise photographs individuals often in their own homes, to authentically document
their lives away from public scrutiny.
The ‘Butch Revival’ founder lives with a life-shortening disease which has profoundly shaped her
approach to photography, influencing her perspective on lesbianism, intimacy, and survival.
Louise’s work is an ongoing response to the times she was told she wouldn’t live to see adulthood.
My name is Chloe and I’m a writer from North Wales, Anglesey. I write poetry and scriptwriting, and (albeit, attempt) to write bilingually in Welsh and English.
I identify as a lesbian, so my work explores the themes of lesbianism and everything that comes with being a lesbian in rural Wales.
I currently work as a Library Assistant and aim to hopefully be published one day
As a budding Salford-based creative, Scot Cunningham formed PridePosterStudios in 2023. He watched over 400 LGBTQIA+ films to design interactive prints that platform those offering positively refreshing, trailblazing, if not pivotal representation of the queer community.
Scot’s educational background is in creative writing. Applying an artistic eye and in-depth research, he also draws from his vast knowledge of LGBTQIA+ stories to sketch outlines for colourful graphic and text-based pieces.
The Rainbow Trail marks Scot’s artistic debut.
I’m an Illustrator and Graphic Designer based just outside of Manchester. My work is all hand-painted and brightly coloured, inspired by classic 90s/00s kids cartoons. As someone who felt she came out ‘late’ and struggled with compulsory heterosexuality, I’ve found myself appreciating and cherishing the everyday queer joy moments in my life since coming out. I try to capture that in my art because there can never be too much queer joy around!
Instagram: @jorickart
Kay (or Kaykay, if you love her) is a twenty-seven year old lesbian poet and artist living in Manchester, England. Her work centres the intimacy in butch/femme relationships, as well as themes of dyke desire, yearning, and love.
Kay has shared her poetry across Manchester’s grassroots arts scene in showcases and open mics. Her zine, This Lovely Light, is where her pieces for the Rainbow Trail originate. The zine is a collection of photography, poetry, and prose, designed as a love letter to lesbian longing.
You can find her on Instagram @leafykayart or locked away in a tower somewhere.
Warning artwork contains Sexual Content (+18)
Adam Holcroft-Tebbutt (he/him) is a queer, transgender artist, activist, and founder of Rainbow & Co, a UK-based brand dedicated to LGBTQ+ empowerment. Blending bold visuals with unapologetic messages, Adam’s work explores identity, resilience, and the power of protest. His art challenges discrimination while celebrating the strength and joy found in queer communities. Deeply rooted in activism, Adam believes that art can be both a shield and a sword, protecting marginalized voices and carving out space for change. His designs invite reflection, conversation, and, most importantly, action.
Website : www.rainbowandco.uk
Instagram : @rainbowandcouk
Tiktok : @rainbowandcouk
Threads : @rainbowandcouk
Facebook : Rainbow & Co
X : @rainbowandcouk
Mancsy is an anonymous artist who has been giving away limited edition screenprints in a game of #finderskeepers on the streets of Manchester each month since January 2012 . An early adopter of the bee graphic with a nod to creativity in the city with a hazard stripe reference to the Factory aesthetic. The prints celebrate and share messages about Manchester and encourage a non art audience to play the game and enjoy looking around the city. Mancsy engages with the public via social media, supporting creative ideas and raising awareness and funds for others.”
Jasmin Issaka is a Manchester-based illustrator, designer, and visual artist known for her bold, psychedelic style that radiates joy, identity, and soulful connection. With over a decade of creative experience, she fuses vibrant storytelling with design to create artwork that uplifts, inspires, and empowers. Jasmin’s work spans digital illustration, print, fashion, and homeware, often rooted in her Ghanaian heritage and personal journey. Through her brand, she shares “vibrant art for everyday people” and delivers creative workshops focused on wellness, freelancing, and self-expression. Jasmin is passionate about building community, celebrating diverse voices, and making art that speaks to the heart.
Website : www.jasminissaka.comn
Instagram : @jasminissaka
Tiktok : @jasminissaka
Facebook : www.facebook.com/jazzybynatureltd
Alex Thomas (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Oxford. Alex makes art to express and process their queer and disabled identity. They studied creative writing at Bath Spa University, are Soho Theatre Labs Alumni and have performed at the Free Fringe, Soho Theatre, The Vagina Museum and The Coast is Queer Literary Festival.
Instagram : @mxafon
Linktree : linktr.ee/mxafon
My current passion is acrylic paint pour, but before this I have worked with mixed media. During the ’90s’ a lot of my work was created using the pointilism technique. Some of my work was exhibited in 1992 at Liverpool Playhouse in the ‘John Lennon, Beatles Imagine Story’.
I came across acrylic paint pour on Facebook about 4 years ago during covid. I was very intrigued, and really enjoyed spending time learning and developing the technique. I now sell my work at artisan markets around Lancashire and Liverpool. I then went on to using a ‘drop box’ business where my work is uploaded to a variety of articles including T-shirts, tote bags and mugs. I opened up my online shop in 2023.
I worked at LGBT Foundation in 1997 for my counselling student placement. Qualified in 1999, and continued to work as a volunteer until 2003. I worked in the office by eighth cafe, then onto the one behind BBC. All of this before social media… and how much it’s changed and evolved since I left in 2003. I did some counselling in NHS and education before going on to work for housing /homeless charity The Whitechapel Centre in Liverpool – which I have been doing for 20 years now.
I am a queer, working class writer and artist living and working in Manchester. In the last few years, I have had work appear in three Manchester exhibitions, and at the Royal Academy as part of their Summer Exhibition My poetry has been performed at the Bolton Octagon as part of their Best Of Bolton Festival, and had readings done at the iconic Central Library, in Manchester, as part of Word Central. I have also had work showcased at The Arcola Theatre, in London. In 2020 my first novel, Cripple, was published with support from Arts Council England and mentored by the poet Anna Robinson, a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London. Cripple is now available to buy from Amazon.
Aimee Linfield (she/her) is a freelance artist and writer who one day dreams of earning enough to pay off the heating bill. She lives in Manchester with several hundred books, four cats, and a dozen dying houseplants. Oh yes, and her wife (after 24/05/25). Her favourite mediums are digital design, ink, and Helena Blavatsky. She thinks she’s quite funny – but most of the time isn’t. You can find (and commission) her work on Instagram at @VixenStudio202.
“Jay Neville (he/they) is the artist behind Illuscribe – a studio specialising in live illustration, visual storytelling and making information beautiful. You can check out their work at www.illuscribe.co.uk“
Artist photographs taken by Pete Carr
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