The National Liberty Museum is presenting a first-of-its-kind LGBT-focused exhibition.
“Transparency,” a large installation opening June 9 and running through Aug. 6, showcases diverse subjects, methods and styles explored by glass artists in the LGBT community.
Meegan Coll, director of glass at the Old City museum, said glass is an idyllic medium for the subject matter.
“At the National Liberty Museum, our core themes for visitors of all ages include leadership and good character, diversity and inclusion, peaceful conflict resolution and civic engagement,” she said. “Our primary art form is glass art, as it makes the point that liberty and freedom are as fragile as glass.”
“Trans-parency” is the first exhibition of LGBT glass artists in the nation.
The exhibition aimed to represent a broad range of artists from across the LGBT community.
“We opened the exhibition to artists of the community, and we have a good representation of the spectrum,” Coll said.
Alongside each of the diverse pieces is a description by the artist about his or her reflections on the glass-art and LGBT communities. Coll said the quotes from the 20 artists add “a personal and emotional element to the show that expresses the artist’s voice.”
The public is also invited to add its voices to the project. The “Transparency” blog (https://nlmtransparency.tumblr.com) encourages visitors to submit their own story about an event or experience that shaped their identity as an LGBT person or ally; submissions can range from stories to poetry to song lyrics. Exhibition-goers can read and take home printed copies of the blog posts.
Philadelphia artist Natalie Hope McDonald contributed two murals to the museum for the special exhibition.
The first is a cityscape that leads visitors down to the lower level of the museum. It was inspired, in part, by John Rechy’s novel “City of Night.”
“I wanted to create an illustrative cityscape that would feel overwhelming to a viewer when standing on the platform in the stairwell, much like the main character in the book did when he arrived in the big city for the first time,” McDonald said. “It’s chaotic and there’s lots of movement and detail that gets confused in a whirl of triangular shapes that carry down the staircase as floating prisms. These are symbolic of fragility and also movement — the gay-rights movement in abstract terms.”
McDonald’s other mural leads into the exhibition and was also inspired by a literary work: Alan Hollinghurst’s “Line of Beauty.”
“Practically speaking, I wanted to create a geometric design that denotes glass. The book itself played an important role in the meaning of this mural because I was concerned with image. Much like the main character wanted to be accepted in mainstream society despite his being gay, the mural offers two halves to the story built upon, what else, but lines of beauty.”
The National Liberty Museum presents “Transparency: An LGBTQ+ Glass Art Exhibition,” through Aug. 6. There will be an opening reception 5:30-9 p.m. June 9 at 321 Chestnut St. For more information, visit www.libertymuseum.org/event/transparency-lgbtq-glass-art-exhibition/.