Brighton is home to Europe's only new media and arts centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

Gay and Lesbian Arts and Media (GLAM) offers training in digital media and has built up a portfolio of projects raising awareness of issues for the gay community.

Project manager Dee Shelley said: "We use art as a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered) community development tool and produce everything digitally using the latest techniques.

"Art for art's sake is fine but we use it to give people an individual self-confidence that has often been destroyed by negative media coverage.

"We put forward positive images giving a more balanced view people can identify with.

"It also builds the skills of those involved in the production process and many of our students have gone on to develop careers in the new media industry."

GLAM was set up in 1997. European funding of £250,000 helped to establish a base in the Old Steine in 1999 and cover costs of training courses for its first year of operations.

Ms Shelley said: "We helped more than 150 people who attended our training courses last year.

"Subjects included theatre, web site design and digital video and photography production, varying from full time to evening classes.

"This is the tip of the iceberg as many people also benefitted from the information passed through the grapevine and from our web site.

"Now we have moved into project-based activity and we are using new media to its maximum to share our work on a wider scale."

Last month, GLAM started a three-year same sex domestic violence project, Hold Tight, Tight Hold, with funding from Comic Relief.

Hold Tight, Tight Hold will see the creation of a CD-ROM and web site to provide a national resource for those affected by domestic violence, support agencies and the police.

Ms Shelley said: "It will feature photographs, art, video, drama and oral histories contributed by people who have experienced same sex domestic violence as well as a compilation of available research.

"We also plan to set up live web casts to reach groups around the country to highlight the issues involved.

"I will give a presentation and people can interact by sending questions as text messages which I could respond to immediately.

"We are looking into how to link up about a dozen agencies, such as police, gay and lesbian support groups and accident and emergency staff. New technology is giving unprecedented ways of communicating and we are going to use it to its full potential."

The Outthere scheme aims to develop multi-media projects within the LGBT community.

Press officer Martin Ellis said: "Outthere is about helping different groups to develop a presence on the web.

"The Outthere team can help organisations who have ideas but not the skills to implement them. They team have a range of experience and many have completed GLAM web design courses which are accredited by the Open College Network.

"We also provide media training for the Terrence Higgins Trust South, teaching web design and image manipulation."

GLAM is gearing up for a summer of activity. It has been commissioned to produce the official video for Pride in Brighton and Hove on August 11 and is preparing for an advanced course for experienced film makers, to coincide with the Gay and Lesbian Arts Festival in November.

Mr Ellis said: "We are involved with so many different projects that sometimes it's difficult to comprehend how much we have achieved in such a short time.

"There's something for everyone and we welcome people to visit our site, get in touch or come and visit us to find out more."

GLAM employs five members of staff and recruits additional freelance support for specific projects.

www.glam-brighton.co.uk
www.lgbt-dv.org
www.outthere.org.uk