Last week week, New York’s LGBT Community Center unveiled the results of a $9.2 million renovation, complete with an art exhibition and a sparkly, rainbow ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate. Attendees included jewelry designer Alexis Bittar, and the LGBT icon Edie Windsor, who gave the final speech of the evening.
The new building was designed by Brian Ripel of RSVP Architecture Studio and Nicola Mongelli of N-Plus Architecture and Design, and features a brighter and more open floor plan, a new coffee shop, amped-up performance venue, and improved community access to the garden, among other tweaks and improvements.
Second Floor, photo by Travis Mark.
Accompanying The Center’s re-launch is an exhibition, “Once Upon a Time and Now,” which was curated by Ian Alteveer, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Looking back on The Center’s history, the show features work that was preserved from the iconic 1989 “The Center Show,” which was a series of site-specific works commissioned to commemorate the 20th-anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, along with contemporary pieces. Featured artists include Keith Haring, David LaChapelle, Barbara Sandler, and Glenn Ligon, among others.
