Ben Garcia, executive director of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, has spent 20 years working to turn museums into welcoming spaces for everyone. He started his career as a gallery guide and educator before moving to exhibition development. Prior to joining the American LGBTQ+ Museum, he served in middle and upper management administrative roles.
Garcia has presented and published regularly on creating structural equity in museums. He has worked in various roles as an educator and administrator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, and Hearst Museum of Anthropology. He later served as deputy director of the Museum of Us, and as the deputy executive director and chief learning officer at the Ohio History Connection.
He led initiatives to return indigenous ancestral human remains and belongings in San Diego and Ohio. He is a board member at Equality Ohio and vice president of the Association of Midwest Museums. His work has focused on inclusivity, equity, representation and decolonisation in museum administration, exhibitions and development initiatives.
Garcia will develop the American LGBTQ+ Museum’s first comprehensive capital campaign to fund exhibitions, educational programmes and operations. The museum will be housed within the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library. “The story of the LGBTQ+ community’s struggle for civil rights is as moving as it is difficult. And it is a story that still goes on, marriage equality aside. There are, unfathomably to most people, still, anti-sodomy laws on the books in some US states,” Dr Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society, told blooloop.
“To lead the American LGBTQ+ Museum into this next phase is a dream realized,” said Garcia. “Together, we will tell the stories of queer peoples in this country from its indigenous beginnings to the present; thousands of stories that haven’t been told before in museums. Stories brought to life through the work of LGBTQ+ creatives and scholars. This museum will be a space of celebration, connection, activism, and deep meaning. A liminal space where the connection to our ancestors will be strong and queer magic, real.”