OUT140, a project by Shelly Telly and Vince Laws in which people tell their coming out stories in 140 characters or less, is at Norwich Arts Centre as part of the Norwich Pride Festival. The second Norwich Pride is on Saturday July 31 and is a celebration from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community for everyone.

Michelle Savage, chair of the Norwich Pride Collective, said:
“Every LGBT person has at least one great Coming Out story. It might be about when they first fell in love, or when they told their parents. Some people faced rejection, others got loving support”

Inspired by the micro-messaging site Twitter, people have been invited to tell their coming out stories in 140 characters or less. There are now over 200 stories on  www.twitter.com/OUT140.

The project started life on the giant Fusion screen in the Forum, and then went on to two old tellies at St Margaret's Church of Art, and it now moves to the plasma screens and walls of the Norwich Arts Centre, before moving to Cromer high street during the Coast festival in October.

Vince Laws said:
"The exhibition is great for LGBT visibility in Norwich. Visibility gives LGBT people confidence, and so does seeing their work writ large in public spaces. Shell and Vince have organised film workshops in Norwich and Cromer and encouraged those writing OUT140 stories to make them into a 12 second films.

"OUT140 is perfect for today's attention span - each story is told in 12 seconds, which also means it engages with people very quickly, even if they only watch the screen for 2 minutes, they will have watched 10 stories.

"There are plans to take OUT140 into schools that will be a great vehicle for discussing how people could be more supportive of their friends and family when they come out as LGB or T.

"Above all, the stories themselves capture the diversity of the coming-out experience from epic biographies to instant sit-coms all in just 140 characters."

For more information visit:
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk or www.norwichpride.org.uk