The Leather Archives & Museum

by Anna Schier

The Leather Archives & Museum

Art critics and viewers alike have struggled for centuries to discern where the line that divides art from pornography falls.  Chicago’s Leather Archives and Museum asks why a line is necessary.

The Leather Archives and Museum serves as a community center, cultural archive and outsider art gallery.  The archives chronicle the history and development of leather culture, while simultaneously providing a platform for current erotic artists to showcase their work.

According to the museum’s Executive Director, Rick Storer, art plays a critical role in leather culture.  “It’s very, very visual.  Certainly for many people the costume or the clothing or the garb that they wear is very much a part of their sexuality,” he said.  This creative expression doesn’t merely exist is the sartorial side of leather, however.  Storer notes, “There’s definitely visual aesthetic elements, for many people, with respect to bondage.  It can be very beautiful.  People are usually very careful about the ropes having specific knots in them, or using specific colors of rope to create design using the human body interacting with the rope.”

The world of leather also includes more literal forms of art.  Storer explains, “For me personally, visual art is so important because it’s a way to express sexual fantasies or sexual experiences that you cannot perform.”

Gold Coast Mural from Etienne

Therefore, it’s only natural that visual art plays a critical role in the preservation and growth of the Leather Archives.  The museum features a wide array of pieces in its permanent collection, including several works by famed muralist Etienne, whose paintings once adorned the walls of the iconic Gold Coast leather bar.  In these pieces, the significant role aesthetics play in leather culture is unquestionable.  The figures, rendered sporting vests, chaps and other accessories, are depicted as proud, confident and strong, a strength that, presumably, comes from their physical presentation and the identity they convey.   Much of the art on display is (not surprisingly) unapologetically graphic, but this boldness and honesty goes hand in hand with the archive’s goal of cultural preservation.

The Leather Archives not only displays works from the past.  It keeps leather-themed art alive and well in the G. A. G. Contemporary Fetish Gallery, which features working artists.  Currently, the gallery is home to the work of Leon Grossman, whose photography show, Burlesque Bondage, contorts the classic definition of the burlesque dancer by playing with gender roles, and, of course, incorporating bondage.

The Leather Archives & Museum

The Archives’ primary goal is to preserve leather culture by serving as a resource to the community.  However, in doing so, the archives simultaneously present the world of leather as a world obsessed with art, physical presentation, performance and aesthetics.  By definition, leather is all about sex.  By execution, leather is all about art.

The Leather Archives and Museum are located at 6418 N. Greenview Ave.  It is open Thursday and Friday from 11am to 7 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 5pm.