Whitney Museum Kicks Off Pride with Performances by New York City Gay Men’s Chorus

New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. Photograph by Marget Long

The Whitney Museum of American Art kicked off Pride festivities last Friday, May 31 with free choral performances by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. 

Pride at the Whitney offers a series of free, on-site public programs and events that will activate the Museum building and surrounding neighborhood with activities for visitors of all ages. Pride at the Whitney is part of the Museum’s ongoing commitment to support LGBTQ+ artists and communities and offer an inclusive space for all to gather and enjoy American art.

Starting Friday, June 7, and continuing throughout June, visitors are invited to join Whitney education staff on Queer History Walks in the Meatpacking District to learn more about the impact and history of LGBTQ+ communities in the neighborhood around the Whitney. Festivities continue on Sunday, June 9, with a special Pride edition of Free Second Sundays, which provides visitors of all ages with free admission to the Museum all day long from 10:30 am–6 pm. All visitors are welcome to participate in helping to create the Whitney Community Pride Mural by reflecting on their personal meanings of Pride and creating a work of art to add to the mural. Additional family-friendly activities, including hands-on artmaking, collaborative coloring projects, and more, will occur throughout the day.

On Friday, June 14, Queer Teen Night is led by the Museum’s Youth Insights Leaders 2024 Biennial artist Nyala Moon. LGBTQ+ teens and allies are invited to celebrate Pride, participate in artmaking workshops, enjoy performances, take a tour of the acclaimed 2024 Whitney Biennial, and more. On Monday, June 24, from 4–6 pm, the Whitney and community partner ADAPT Community Network will host a Radical Joy Ball in the Museum’s Theater. Museum visitors are welcome to join in celebrating and recognizing those within our community who are LGBTQ+, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), and living with disabilities. Drawing from New York’s ballroom culture traditions, this event creates a space to celebrate the vibrancy of LGBTQ+ and disability pride through music, dance, and runway performances.

Additional information about Pride at the Whitney, digital offerings, and visitor information, including accessibility services, is available on the Museum’s website at whitney.org/pride-2024.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment

The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgement, visit the Museum’s website.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. The Museum offers FREE admission and special programming for visitors of all ages every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month.