Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years
The official catalog celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Leather Archives & Museum. The catalog features essays, collection photographs, and highlights over the LA&M's institutional life.
The official catalog celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Leather Archives & Museum. The catalog features essays, collection photographs, and highlights over the LA&M's institutional life.
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THE FUTURE<br />
The future of the LA&M is exhilarating. The commemoration of our <strong>25</strong>th anniversary<br />
shows the perseverance and power within the <strong>Leather</strong> / BDSM / kink / fetish<br />
communities to formalize the professional collection and documentation of<br />
this incredible and unique history.<br />
The social impact of archives is just starting to be felt on an individual and institutional<br />
level: in the development of personal and community identities, preservation<br />
of culture, historical context and significance, and representations of communities<br />
by communities. You are here, you belong here.<br />
The more direct engagement with archival materials, the more history becomes<br />
active, participatory, pertinent. To see oneself within a historical context promotes<br />
inclusion, empowerment. This is crucial to remember when we think<br />
about the history of alternative sex communities. As Gayle Rubin discusses in<br />
the essay in the previous section, it wasn’t very long ago that most, if not all of<br />
these materials were being stored in private attics and basements. The absence<br />
of physical materials created by leather communities made it very difficult to<br />
build knowledge about these subcultures and communities.<br />
The more access and research using these collections, the less misrepresentation<br />
about alternative sexuality there will be within the historic record. The more<br />
diversity within collections, the more represented and holistic leather history will<br />
be.<br />
The future of the LA&M holds more professional staff, inclusion and dynamism<br />
within collections, and more representational belonging of all alternative sex<br />
communities. In turn, these collections will demand the attention and use of<br />
scholars worldwide as we assert our historical presence and impact.<br />
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