Featured image: Jessica L White

Ben Saunders is a queer and trans Manchester-based creative who recently graduated from the MMU’s School of Art. A jack-of-all-trades, he balanced his Illustration and Animation studies with co-running the Queer Art Market, selling his art, running creative workshops, and even creating hand poke tattoos.

The Queer Art Markets are an event highlighting queer and local creatives, offering an accessible and inclusive opportunity for artists to sell their work and find community. The market is hosted regularly throughout the year by Ben Saunders and Ben Hodges, in collaboration with some of Manchester’s best LGBTQ+ friendly spaces including Feel Good Club and The Proud Place.

Can you us about how you got started?

I’ve been co-running the Manchester Queer Art Market since 2022, with my friend Ben Hodges – yes, we’re both named Ben and yes, it does get confusing! I’ve just graduated from MMU and I’ve been selling my work for the last four years. I would do a lot of markets, but they felt inaccessible and weren’t providing the right environment for me or my work, so Ben and I decided to create an event of our own. He does queer comedy, so we definitely share an interest in queer-friendly events and spaces.

We held our first market at Feel Good Club, where we still regularly host markets. We were surprised they liked the idea; we didn’t expect to immediately work with such a key queer venue in Manchester. Currently, we’re excited to start holding larger events. We’ve got an event at The Proud Place coming
up, which will be across all three storeys featuring 37 stalls. That’s three times the size of our usual markets!

Can you tell us about the response you’ve received?

The feedback we get is that our events feel relaxed, friendly and much less intimidating than other events. The atmosphere is so much more positive. It’s crazy how much of a difference it makes to be in a queer-friendly space. I do queer events exclusively now for this reason.

Do you have any advice for creatives considering starting something similar?

It can feel really scary, though most people are learning as they go! You don’t need to have the best set up or be well-established, just start selling your work and you will find your audience. Many people are doing it for the first time, and the feedback we get is that events feel relaxed, friendly and much less intimidating than other events might feel for someone just starting out. So just do it! 

You seem to have created a really friendly and welcoming environment for both stallholders and customers. What is this like?

We always try to! It’s been really important to us that people can show up as themselves and feel welcomed and relaxed. We don’t want to censor people’s work and we want everyone to feel like they have a place at our event.

What’s been your favourite aspect of this event?

This wasn’t something we ever expected, but every so often, people will come to the stalls and get emotional because of how much it’s meant to them that an event like this exists. It’s lovely to see the positive impact that this space has on people; it’s a reminder of why we keep doing this. 

Is there something you’re hoping to see more of at the markets? 

It’s so nice to see a variety of different work – personally I love to see 3D work, although I might be biassed because I love ceramics! Another thing I love is interactive stalls. We’ve had tarot readers and live portrait artists, which I think is so fun and I’d love to see more of that. We held an event for Manchester Trans Pride in August, and I’d love to keep doing things like that. I think they’re really important. 

That’s so cool! What’s next?

We have a Halloween and a Christmas themed market coming up! I’m quite excited for the Halloween one – it’s going to be a bit different. Feel Good Club have arranged live music in the past, but for the Halloween one they’re going to show some great films! And the Christmas market is our busiest, so that’s always a fun one!

Follow @bensaunders.art and @mcrqueerartmarket on Instagram