in the email today...
>+ museum of se[x] >+ collections news >+ 7.02.02 > >THE MUSEUM OF SEX ACQUIRES WHITTINGTON COLLECTION, HARMONY THEATRE >ARTIFACTS, CONTEMPORARY AND EXPERIMENTAL ART FOR PERMANENT COLLECTION > >New York � The Museum of Sex, (www.museumofsex.com), opening on September >23, with its inaugural exhibition, NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed >Sex in America (http://nycsex.museumofsex.com) has acquired numerous pieces >from varied sources for its permanent collection. > >Additionally, the museum has named three non-profit organizations who will >derive a percentage of proceeds from the museum�s inaugural exhibition: >ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America), The Kinsey Institute >for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and The Lesbian Herstory >Archives. > >THE COLLECTION > >Ralph Whittington > >Ralph Whittington, who recently retired after a 36-year career with the >Library of Congress, began to acquire and archive erotic materials more >than three decades ago. "Ralph Whittington began to collect at the very >moment explicit pornography was being made available to a mass audience," >says Museum of Sex curator Grady Turner. "There was no way of predicting >how that market would progress, but Mr. Whittington was attuned to each new >development. The result is a uniquely comprehensive archive of commercial >heterosexual pornography." > >Since picking up a pocket-sized magazine on a second-grade school trip to >Baltimore, Mr. Whittington has known of his interest in the subject. He has >amassed a collection that includes more than 400 8-millimeter films, 700 >videos, 1,500 magazines, 200 books, industry-related news clips, calendars, >posters, and artifacts such as blow-up dolls, bawdy house coins, erotic >novelties, artificial genitalia, erotic records and women�s high heels. >Considered a thorough and diligent archivist, Mr. Whittington has assembled >a collection that charts changing social mores about the production, >distribution and consumption of sexually explicit materials. > >Mr. Whittington made the public aware of his collection twenty years ago >and has considered offering it to the Library of Congress or the Museum of >Modern Art. He now believes the Museum of Sex to be the most appropriate >repository for his life's work. �I was happy to come out of my �collector >closet� 20 years ago, which I found to be both beneficial to me and the >collection for the purposes of acquiring additional and varied materials. >I am delighted that my collection has found a permanent home in the >Museum,� says Ralph Whittington. The museum has acquired the entire >Whittington Collection and will use select items for its inaugural >exhibition in September. > >The Harmony Theatre > >The Harmony Theatre, previously known as the Melody Burlesk, was an >establishment located at Broadway and 48th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s >that paid tribute to the art of striptease and popularized such innovations >as lap dancing. > >A central Times Square gathering place for international porn stars, exotic >dancers, and their fans, the Harmony played host to a number of well-known >performers. Featured stars included Tina Russell, Tempest Storm, Mai Ling, >Veronica Hart, Samantha Fox, among others. Annie Sprinkle performed at the >Harmony numerous times throughout its history and debuted her performance >art piece �Post Porn Modernist� there in 1989. > >On any given day, customers could interact with more than one hundred >dancers in the theater; eighty percent of their clientele was repeat. >Alcohol was not served in the theater, which did not diminish its >popularity. Dozens of customers were turned away daily from the Harmony >due to capacity crowds. > >The theater closed in Times Square in the late 1980s and moved to Tribeca >before closing to customers for good in 1998. A number of artifacts from >the theater, including promotional signs, decorations and costumes, are in >the museum�s collection. > >The Lannan Foundation > >The Lannan Foundation, based in New Mexico, is a family foundation >dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects >which support contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native >activists in rural indigenous communities. In its recognition of the value >of the creative process, the foundation is willing to take risks and to >make substantial investments in ambitious and experimental thinking. The >foundation is particularly interested in projects that encourage freedom of >inquiry, imagination and expression. > >Nineteen pieces have been donated to the museum from The Lannan Foundation, >including works by William Fielding Miles Forst, Gerald Gooch, Scott >Miller, Milo Riece, Anita Steckel, T. Verries and Louis Renzoni. > >THE BENEFICIARIES > >ACRIA > >The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) was incorporated >in December 1991 by a group of physicians, activists, and people living >with AIDS (PLWAs) who were discouraged by the restraints and red tape >debilitating government and academic AIDS research efforts. Under the >leadership of the medical community's foremost AIDS practitioners and >researchers, the group set out to create an agency which would bring >activism to the ever-urgent task of studying AIDS-related illness and >treatment. > >ACRIA's status as an independent, not-for-profit clinical research and >education organization has uniquely qualified it to evaluate drugs and >treatments that for-profit groups lack the financial incentive to explore. >Further, when late-breaking information becomes available, ACRIA has been >able to quickly adapt its research initiatives at a much faster pace than >large academic and government groups. As a result, ACRIA has consistently >completed preliminary studies of new drugs within months, rather than >years. The agency has not only conducted many trials that have identified >new uses of existing therapies for treating HIV patients, but has also >contributed to the FDA approval of seven new AIDS treatments. Among the >first protease inhibitors and nucleoside transcriptase inhibitors were >tested at ACRIA's clinic. > >ACRIA is also a leading provider of HIV treatment education in New York >City and across the United States. Each year, the agency's staff inform >over 7,000 PLWAs and their care givers about the latest advances in HIV >health care through group treatment workshops, individual treatment >education sessions, and large community treatment forums. Nearly 240 well >established community-based organizations citywide have partnered with >ACRIA to bring information on the newest HIV health care advances to their >PLWA clients within multiple communities in all five boroughs of the city. >ACRIA also provides treatment education to a national audience through a >comprehensive technical assistance program in multiple cities. In addition >to offering extensive health information resources on the Internet, the >agency's publications -- a quarterly newsletter, ACRIA Update and topic >specific brochures on Clinical Trials Explained, Managing Drug Side Effects >and Understanding Your Lab Results -- are distributed for free nationwide. >For more information on ACRIA, visit www.acria.org. > > >The Kinsey Institute > >The mission of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and >Reproduction is to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship in >the fields of human sexuality, gender and reproduction. The Institute >carries out this mission through: development of specialized collections of >resources for scholars; programs of research and publication; >interdisciplinary conferences and seminars; provision of information >services to researchers; and graduate training. > >The Institute's broader mission includes service to academic and >professional communities through teaching, clinical and research training, >tours and presentations, and to the public through provision of clinical >services for problems related to sexual and reproductive health and >referral to appropriate organizations and groups. > >The Institute's research collections span cultures and over 2000 years of >human history. They record humanity's enduring fascination with sexual >experience as a subject for art. The holdings include original commercial, >folk and fine art and artifacts, and over 75,000 photographs, from 1870 to >the present. The Institute's library holds over 95,000 books, magazines, >newspapers, and scholarly journals, as well as films, videos and original >manuscript collections. For more information on The Kinsey Institute, >visit www.kinseyinstitute.org. > >The Lesbian Herstory Archives > >The Lesbian Herstory Archives is a community-based nonprofit institution >founded in 1974, with the mission to gather and preserve relevant >Lesbian-related materials in order to make this information available and >accessible to future generations. > >Through the process of gathering materials, the Archives have served to >uncover and collect information denied previously, which has enabled them >to analyze and reevaluate the Lesbian experience. Materials collected and >preserved include books, magazines, journals, news clippings, >bibliographies, photographs, historical information, tapes, films, diaries, >oral histories, poetry and prose, biographies, autobiographies, notices of >events, posters, graphics and other memorabilia. > >Since inception to the present, the overall message of the Archives is one >of non-exclusivity, that every Lesbian life could and should be represented >and they encourage Lesbians to record their experiences in order to >continue the formulation of a living record. > >The Museum of Sex is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history, >evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality. In its >exhibitions, programs and publications, The Museum of Sex is committed to >open discourse and exchange, and to bringing to the public the best in >current scholarship. For more information about the Museum, visit >www.museumofsex.com. For tickets to its current exhibition, NYC Sex, call >1.866.MOSEX TIX. > >Contact: Bonni Hamilton, 212.946.6323 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > >+ + + + + > >This is a subscription-based newsletter from the Museum of Sex. From time >to time, the Museum of Sex will send such messages in order to communicate >important announcements, news and updates of our progress. The Museum does >not provide your email address or any personal information to third parties >without your permission. To review our complete privacy policy, please >visit: http://www.museumofsex.com/privacypolicy.html > > > This message was sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you received this email in >error or no longer wish to receive future newsletters, please unsubscribe >here: > http://www.museumofsex.com/admin/emailoptout.asp?msu_id=5973
