Building on the success of its new LGBT museum in the Castro, the GLBT Historical Society has launched a summer series of programming at the exhibit space. Begun in early June and extending through July, the two months worth of special events is aimed at fostering public exchanges with historians, curators, authors, elders and community organizers.
It is the archival group's most ambitious programming roll out since opening the 18th Street museum last December. Discussions have already focused on economic issues, gentrification pressures in the city's gayborhood, and health and aging issues in queer communities of color.
Tonight (Thursday, June 23) the museum will host a discussion about Vanguard, a magazine created by queer youth and their allies living in the Tenderloin during the 1960s. Next month speakers will include the curator of the Gertrude Stein exhibit on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco (July 6) and the editors of a new anthology of work by the late gay historian Allan Berube (July 7).
The lectures are part of the society's plan to draw more people in to the Castro location and build support for its long-range goal of having a permanent presence in the area. It has a five-year lease for the current museum.
It is the second time the society has had a Castro exhibition space. It mounted a show at a different location in the fall of 2008 that closed within the year.
As the society, which will be an organizational grand marshal in Sunday's Pride Parade, worked on re-opening a Castro exhibit space in 2009, its finances took a hit. It was unable to leverage having a Castro museum to secure grant funding. Its total expenses that year totaled $551,646 while revenues came to $367,311.
"Yes, 2009 was a difficult year for us. We turned it around in 2010," said Paul Boneberg, the society's executive director.
The society has yet to release its financial disclosure forms for last year. Boneberg said the budget came in at $500,000 and the agency did not run a deficit.
"We reduced expenses at the end of 2009 and the first part of 2010," he said. "2010 was strong for us. We will be in the black in 2010 and 2011."
The society expects to take in more than $50,000 from museum admissions this year. And it hopes the city will see it as a cultural attraction worthy of support.
"We do hope the city of San Francisco will continue to provide financing," said Boneberg.
Open six months now, the stand-alone museum has garnered international coverage for the historical society. Many publications have picked up on its being touted as the "First GLBT History Museum in the United States."
News outlets ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune to the website Tert.am in Armenia and Italy's La 7 National Television all ran with the story. Within a month after its grand opening ceremony in January, the archival group had tallied coverage of the museum's opening in at least 75 countries.
The press attention caused a bit of a rivalry between the San Francisco group and the Stonewall Library Museum Archive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It changed its name earlier this year to Stonewall National Museum and Archive in Fort Lauderdale in an apparent attempt to reclaim the mantle of being the nation's first LGBT museum.
An announcement about the name change stated the Sunshine State group was "the first of its kind in the United States" as well as "the first to have a permanent exhibition space dedicated to the history of the GLBT community in the United States from 1850 to the present."
And in a not so subtle dig at its Bay Area-based counterpart, the Florida institution went on to state, "But being the 'first' national museum of its kind is less important than being the 'best.'"
Asked about the competing claims, Boneberg declined to stoke the flames of any rivalry.
"We believe we are the only LGBT museum in the country. But God bless everybody doing LGBT exhibits," he said. "We support them and hope they succeed."
For more information about the society and its programs, visit http://www.glbthistory.org.