After over 25 years, the museum will leave its location at Mehringdamm 61 in Berlin-Kreuzberg to take up residence in a new building at Lützowstraße 73 in Berlin-Tiergarten.
In spring 2013, the time will finally arrive: After an intensive two-year search for a suitable space, the museum is moving into a former printing house at Lützowstraße 73 in Berlin-Tiergarten. The move will double the museum’s previous area, for a total of 1600 square meters.
The museum will occupy the entire ground floor of the new building, as well as parts of the first floors above and below ground. The ground floor will house four exhibition spaces and a café where events can take place. On the upper floor, in addition to office spaces, a reference library will be established where visitors of all genders will find space to work on their research. The museum’s singular archive will find its new home in the climate-controlled basement space.
Carsten Wiewiorra of the Gay Museum’s board of directors said this about the new building: “On the ground floor, exhibition and event spaces of spatially very diverse natures are being constructed, each tailored to do justice to the museum’s specific themes and media. The spaces on all three levels are linked by the charm of the industrial loft and a consistent design, at once modern and reserved. The new spaces are designed to create optimal conditions for both exhibiting and working, as well as to embody openness and ‘design for all’.”
The move is made possible by public funds. The museum has been awarded a total of 644,000 euros, contributed in equal parts by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (German National Lottery Foundation) and the European Regional Development Fund. Above all, these funds are to finance the interior construction which is set to occur in the coming months and will ensure the museum’s functions as exhibition space and archive in conformance to international standards.
The move marks more than just the professionalization of the museum; it marks a thematic opening. Having arisen in 1985 out of the gay liberation movement and long committed to largely gay themes, the Gay Museum has since grown into a center of information on the diversity of sexual identities and concepts of gender. Changing exhibitions and events will dedicate themselves with even greater intensity than before to the multiplicity of lesbian, gay, trans*, bisexual, intersex and queer life stories, themes and concepts in history, art and culture.
The entire museum team is delighted at these latest developments and is now beginning preparations for the move. Business will continue as usual at the old location until spring 2013. The precise date of the opening as well as the program for the new space will be announced in the new year.
Kindly supported by:
Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin
Europäischen Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE)
Source – Schwules Museum
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