QUEER
SPORT & ART
COLLECTIVE
the portal is open. other dimensions are accessible. new realities are possible.
ABOUT CLUBSCORE
CLUBSCORE is a queer sports and art collective centring the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming people in sports and games. Trans and gender diverse (TGD) people have been consistently excluded and discriminated against in every modern sport, game and physical activity. Limited access to safe spaces to train and play, exclusion from sporting communities, outdated binary classifications of “mens and women’s leagues” and harmful rhetoric about trans athletes being spouted from politicians and on social media means that TGD people often can’t join in the activities that are so often talked about as being “for everyone”.
CLUBSCORE responds to historical and current injustice, and calls the future we want into being, using a mix of creative arts practices, games and sports activities. We bring trans and gender non-conforming people and the broader queer community together to mourn, celebrate, and strategise.
STORY
ROUND ONE
Ahead of the Game Residency
In 2019, @ainslieandgorman ran an arts residency titled ‘Ahead of the Game’. Three queer Canberra artists, Zev Aviv, Gus McGrath and Emma McManus, worked with artist Tristan Meecham of @allthequeensmen for a total of three weeks. The provocation for Ahead of the Game was to create a new queer sport. During the residency the artists went on excursions, zoomed with artists across the country, taught each other games, played laser tag, made up new rules for handball and did a lot of talking. In the end they didn’t make a queer sport, they made CLUBSCORE.
ROUND TWO
Community Engagement
Led by Canberra based producer Ketura Budd and artist Zev Aviv, with ongoing input from the whole team, CLUBSCORE entered ROUND TWO. Budd and Aviv spent time in the trans and gender diverse community throughout 2020-21, gathering stories about their experiences of sport and games through interviews and workshops. These stories informed and inspired the whole team as they plotted, schemed and planned for ROUND THREE
ROUND THREE
Creative Development
CLUBSCORE's creative development unfurled slowly over 2021-22, playing with the idea of an ARENA SPECTACULAR, developing draft performances and scripts, working on costume designs and sculptures.
Late in 2022, Ket got a call from Yolande Norris, who asked if CLUBSCORE might create something for the inaugural Uncharted Territory innovation festival.
Ket and Zev got to work re-thinking what our first public offering might be. Our "Fantasy Museum" concept was born, and we set about getting ready to share it in 2023.