LESLIE-LOHMAN MUSEUM OF GAY AND LESBIAN ART BEGINS EXPANSION AND RAISES $40,000 FOR ITS NEW DIVERSITY FUND

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art has announced that it has begun construction on a major expansion project that will double the size of the institution’s footprint. Located on Wooster Street, in New York City, the museum is taking over the space adjacent to its existing gallery.

The addition of 2,300 square feet will include new galleries, a gift shop, rooms for events and educational initiatives, and storage areas. Interim director Meryl A. Allison said, “This expansion marks an extraordinary turning point and phase of substantive growth for the museum, which has had a strong presence in SoHo for nearly thirty years.”

The museum also announced that it has raised more than $40,000 for its Hunter O’Hanian Diversity Art Fund, which launched this summer. The fund will support the acquisition of artworks primarily by transgender and female artists.

After its current exhibition, “Cut Ups: Queer Collage Practices,” ends on December 18, the museum will close until early 2017. It will reopen with a show that explores Leslie-Lohman’s thirty-year history, featuring 140 works of art by various artists, including Bernice Abbott, George Bellows, Richard Hamilton, Go Mishima, and Mickalene Thomas.