Last month, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art received an official Museum Accreditation from the State of New York. Located in lower Manhattan, Leslie-Lohman will be the first museum focused solely on gay and lesbian art.
In the past, as gay and lesbian issues were commonly shoved under the rug, many museums were hesitant to feature works of any type from artists in that community. Now this work has a home – a place to shine and be seen by others. The museum has made it clear as well, that they’re targeting a large audience, gay and straight alike.
Jonathan Katz, American actor, comedian, and writer, is serving as the museum’s curator, and in regards to the museum’s proposed audience he said, “While until recently, queer art exhibitions assumed an audience of mostly queer visitors, a new generation of queer cultural institutions instead seeks to make queer art visible to a mainstream audience. People of all stripes are hungry for precisely the information the big museums have been censoring for decades now.”
The collection at the museum includes more than 6,000 objects from over three centuries of gay and lesbian art. In addition, the museum is touting roughly eight major exhibitions a year, in addition to poetry readings, plays, panel discussions and film screenings, artist and curator talks, a membership program, and a research/archive division. They are also planning to publish a quarterly newsletter, “The Archive,” focusing on everything gay and lesbian in the art world.
Here at LineLogic, we strive to match the focus of every industry we deal with. Last June when New York State legalized same-sex marriage, we wanted to do something to contribute to the celebration. That’s when we put together the retractable pride belt, which was used by gay and lesbian establishments across the State. Maybe the Leslie-Lohman and other such institutions will find a similar use for it and allow us again to participate in this new celebration!