Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York a new exhibition that opened last week at the Museum of the City of New York looks at how the marginalization of LGBT people in the 1920’s – 1990’s also gave rise to a great deal of creativity. The show looks at queer networks that grew in the city around 10 major artistic figures: the composer Leonard Bernstein; the photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and George Platt Lynes; the visual artists Andy Warhol, Richard Bruce Nugent, Harmony Hammond and Greer Lankton; the playwright, poet and novelist Mercedes de Acosta; the impresario Lincoln Kirstein; and the dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones.

Peeling back the layers of New York’s LGBT life that thrived even in the shadows, this groundbreaking exhibition reveals an often-hidden side of the history of New York City and celebrates the power of artistic collaboration to transcend oppression.  Among the many artifacts are the original designs for “West Side Story,” which curator Donald Albrecht said he included was because the creators were all gay: Leonard Bernstein (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), Arthur Laurents (libretto), Jerome Robbins (choreography), Oliver Smith (scenery) and Irene Sharaff (costumes).

The Exhibit runs from  OCT 7, 2016-FEB 26, 2017

Details and Information http://www.mcny.org/exhibition/gay-gotham