The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLM), formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is a visual art museum in SoHo,

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

, New York City. It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or art about LGBTQ+ themes, issues, and people. The museum, operated by the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, offers exhibitions year-round in numerous locations and owns more than 22,000 objects, including, paintings, drawings, photography, prints and sculpture. It has been recognized as one of the oldest arts groups engaged in the collection and preservation of gay art.NYC's 5 Best LGBT Art Exhibits And Cultural Events

Archive
. CBS New York City. June 4, 2012. Retrieved on September 14, 2014. The foundation was awarded Museum status by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011 and was formally accredited as a museum in 2016. The museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and operates pursuant to their guidelines. As of 2019, the LLM was the only museum in the world dedicated to artwork documenting the LGBTQ experience. The museum maintains a Permanent Collection into which more than 1,300 objects have been accessioned. The Permanent Collection contains works by a number of well-known gay artists such as

Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...

Abel Azcona Abel Azcona (born 1 April 1988) is a Spanish artist, specializing in performance art. His work includes installations, sculptures, and video art. He is known as the "''enfant terrible''" of Spanish contemporary art. His first works dealt with ...

, David Hockney,

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, Catherine Opie, Andy Warhol, Tom of Finland, Delmas Howe, Jean Cocteau, David Wojnarowicz,

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...

, Horst, Duncan Grant, James Bidgood, Duane Michals, Charles Demuth, Don Bachardy, Attila Richard Lukacs, Jim French, Del LaGrace Volcano, Paul Thek, Peter Hujar,

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and many others.Sanchez, "Leslie-Lohman Gallery: The Ultimate Gay Portfolio," ''Genre Magazine,'' September 2000.

Mission

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art provides a platform for artistic exploration through multi-faceted queer perspectives. We embrace the power of the arts to inspire, explore, and foster understanding of the rich diversity of LGBTQ+ experiences.

Background

The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation was founded by J. Frederic "Fritz" Lohman and Charles W. Leslie.Robinson, "Future Events From Art to Zippers," ''The New York Times,'' April 25, 1982. The two men had been collecting art for several years, and mounted their first exhibition of gay art in their loft on Prince Street in New York City in 1969. They opened a commercial

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

shortly thereafter, but this venue closed in the early 1980s at the advent of the

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

.De Stefano, "Artistic Outlaws: Leslie and Lohman Have Fought to Preserve Gay Art for Three Decades," ''New York Blade,'' March 20, 1998. In 1987, the two men applied for nonprofit status as a precursor to establishing a foundation to preserve their collection of gay art and continue exhibition efforts. The

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

objected to the word "gay" in the title of the foundation and held up the nonprofit application for several years. The foundation was granted nonprofit status in 1990. The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation's first location was in a basement at 127B Prince Street in New York City. In 2006, the foundation moved into a ground floor gallery at 26 Wooster Street in historic SoHo; gallery space will be expanding in size in 2016–2017.

Programs

The museum offers several principle programs, including the maintenance of its Permanent and Study Collections, 6-8 annual exhibitions at 26 Wooster Street, 4-6 annual exhibitions in the Wooster Street Windows Gallery, and multiple weekend exhibitions and drawing workshops at its Prince Street Project Space at 127b Prince Street in SoHo. The museum's exhibitions are organized by Guest Curators who submit proposals which are reviewed by the museum director and Exhibition Committee. In addition, the museum offers a complete year-round schedule of educational programing, including talks, lectures (

Slava Mogutin Slava Mogutin (full name Yaroslav Yurievich Mogutin, b. April 12, 1974, Kemerovo) is a New York-based Russian artist and author, who works across different media, including photography, video, text, installation, sculpture, and painting. Life ...

, Duane Michals, Catherine Opie, Jonathan David Katz, etc.), films and books signings. The LLGAF also publishe
''The Archive''
made available to its membership that includes information on the Leslie-Lohman collection, new acquisitions, events, and articles on artists and exhibitions. The museum has a library with more than 2,500 volumes on gay art and maintains files on more than 2,000 individual artists. The museum has begun to travel its exhibitions as its 2013 ''

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'' exhibition traveled to the

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in Berlin. The museum's ''Classical Nude: The Making of Queer History'' was on preview at the

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gallery in West Hollywood in the summer of 2014. The museum makes objects in its collection available for loan to qualified organizations and in recent years has borrowed works from other institutions, including the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution.

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, The Andy Warhol Museum, and other organizations.

Governance and finances

The Leslie-Lohman Museum is governed by an independent Board of Directors. The foundation employs a full-time staff, and relies on the assistance of volunteers to implement its programs. The museum also runs a Fellowship Program. It is financed by its endowment, contributions from private donors and foundations as well as a membership program. The foundation expands its collection primarily by donations from artists and collectors.

References

Sources

*Aletti, Vince. "Patrick Angus at the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation." ''The Village Voice.'' February 4–10, 2004. *Cotter, Holland. "Gay Pride (and Anguish) Around the Galleries." ''New York Times.'' June 24, 1994. * Clarke, Kevin. "The Art of Looking: The Life and Treasures of Collector Charles Leslie" 256 Pages, Bruno Gmuender 2015. *De Stefano, George. "Artistic Outlaws: Leslie and Lohman Have Fought to Preserve Gay Art for Three Decades." ''New York Blade.'' March 20, 1998. *Ellis, Alan. "Arts and Education." In ''The Harvey Milk Institute Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Internet Research.'' Alan Ellis, Liz Highley, Kevin Schaub, Melissa White, and Liz Highleyman, eds. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, 2001. *Kennedy, Sean. "Lust At Last: At Age 70, Illustrator Bob Ziering Shows His Gay Erotic Art for the First Time." ''The Advocate.'' August 17, 2004. *Lee, Nathan. "The Week Ahead: Jan. 22 - Jan. 28." ''New York Times.'' January 22, 2006.
Lockard, Ray Anne. "Pink Papers and Lavender Files: Preserving Gay and Lesbian Art History in Archival Collections." Art Libraries Society of North America. Session 14. 26th Annual Conference. Philadelphia, Pa., March 10, 1998.
Accessed November 3, 2007. *Robinson, Ruth. "Future Events From Art to Zippers." ''New York Times.'' April 25, 1982. *Sanchez, John. "Leslie-Lohman Gallery: The Ultimate Gay Portfolio." ''Genre Magazine.'' September 2000. *Saslow, James M. ''Pictures and Passions. A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts.'' New York: Viking Press, 1999. *Summers, Claude J., ed. ''The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts.'' San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2004. *Twomey, Chris. "The Culture of Queer: A Tribute to J.B. Harter." ''New York Art World.'' September 2006.

External links

* {{authority control LGBT arts organizations Museums in Manhattan Art museums and galleries in New York City 2016 establishments in New York City SoHo, Manhattan Historiography of LGBT in New York City LGBT museums and archives Art museums established in 2016 LGBT art in the United States Charities based in New York City