Tony Kushner and Edmund White Help Launch New Support Group for The New York Public Library's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collections

LGBT @ NYPL Announces over $500,000 in Major Corporate Gifts from Time Warner, MAC AIDS Fund, and Estee Lauder and Private Donations at April 3 Kickoff


(New York, NY) April 4, 2008 – A new donor support group, LGBT @ NYPL, will help to expand, build, and make accessible The New York Public Library’s extensive Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) collections, one of the few such efforts by a non-LGBT organization.

At an inaugural reception last night at the Library, LGBT @ NYPL’s Co-Chairmen Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney announced it has raised more than $500,000 in corporate and private donations to strengthen LGBT collections across the The New York Public Library’s four research libraries and 87 branches. Mallea and Maloney were joined by Library Chairman Catherine C. Marron and President Paul LeClerc as well as Honorary Chairmen Tony Kushner and Edmund White. (Honorary Chairman Rita Mae Brown was unable to attend.)

“For decades, The New York Public Library has documented the history and creative contributions of LGBT communities. These collections show both the struggle for social justice and the individual accomplishments of community members,” said New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc. “It is vitally important for the Library to preserve this history and expand its collections in this area. We are deeply grateful to Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney for founding and chairing the LGBT Committee, and to all those who have donated funds.”

TimeWarner has pledged $300,000 to the LGBT Collections; MAC AIDS Fund has pledged $150,000; Esteé Lauder has pledged $30,000. The MAC AIDS Fund Gift will bring HIV/AIDS issues to broader public attention by providing wider access to the Library’s extraordinarily rich collections on HIV/AIDS activism and advocacy. There are also 41 individual Members, with gifts totaling over $100,000 this fiscal year. Membership gifts range between $1,000 to $25,000.

The core strength of the Library’s LGBT collections is the combination of archives of key LGBT activists and activist organizations, such as Gay Activists Alliance, the Mattachine Society of New York, Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen, Jonothan Ned Katz and Joseph Beam, alongside the archives of pivotal LGBT artists and cultural figures such as William S. Burroughs, W. H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Charles Ludlum, combined with some of the country’s strongest collections on the LGBT movement or LGBT issues. The collections comprise at least 50,000 volumes and over 300 archives, including hundreds of thousands of letters, manuscripts, photographs, and posters, along with numerous films, videos, and audio recordings. Library programming such as author talks, lectures, public conversations, films, and musical performances add richness and context to the wealth of materials.

A new blog highlights some of the fascinating materials in the Library’s LGBT collections. Managed by Jason Baumann, Manager of the LGBT Committee, lgbt @ nypl also provides links to the Library’s LGBT Digital Collections and Resources. lgbt @ nypl can be found at http://lgbt.nypl.org/.

The LGBT Committee would like to thank TimeWarner, the MAC AIDS Fund, and Estée Lauder for their generous gifts.

About LGBT @ NYPL Chairmen Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney

Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney are longtime Library supporters, and personal and professional partners through their architecture and design business M (Group). The pair has served the Library in countless ways over the years, teaching adult literacy, giving tours, and by founding support groups such as The Young Friends (which later became The Young Lions). They have overseen renovation projects at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library on 42nd Street, and each winter holiday season, they decorate the landmark library. They also serve on the Library’s Members Council of Conservators and Members of the President’s Council.

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers – The Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library – and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves over 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through its website, www.nypl.org.

###

Contact: Gayle Snible 212.592.7713 | gsnible@nypl.org

gs:04.04.08:nypl020