SOHO — Nearly 30 years after the inception of the small non-profit that operates it, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art is growing from a 3,300-square-foot ground-floor loft on Wooster Street to take over the corner loft next door on Broome Street.
The expansion will allow Leslie-Lohman, which has been recognized as the world's first and only museum devoted exclusively to LGBTQ art, to nearly double in size, up to 5,600 square feet.
"We have secured the space, devised the plan, identified the funding [and] are now moving forward," museum director Hunter O'Hanian said in a statement.
A spokesman for the museum said the expansion is being financed "through internal funding, including a couple of bequests, and from donations made to the museum."
Their 26 Wooster St. space is currently closed for construction work that will combine the two spaces. O'Hanian said the museum is expected to reopen with the newly renovated space by March.
Noting that Leslie-Lohman only officially became a museum four years ago, the president of the museum's board of directors, Jonathan David Katz, said the expansion "is the next step in the Museum’s amazingly fast growth."
Leslie-Lohman was granted a provisional museum charter from the New York State Board of Regents in May 2011 and is expected to be a candidate for an absolute charter by May 2016.
Its existing gallery space will be enlarged, and another large gallery will be located in the new corner space, along with staff offices and improved storage space for their collection and loaned works.
The new gallery will be named after Marion Pinto, a SoHo-based artist who died in 2010 and left her life's work to the Leslie-Lohman Museum.
O'Hanian said the expansion will allow the museum to host more and better-quality exhibits, as well as stay open while exhibits are installed. They'll also add a gift and book shop, and plan to develop educational programming.
The museum recently made news for challenging the Whitney Museum's rejection of a male nude sculpture they were supposed to display outdoors.
