Can you speak about the art work from The German Art exhibit? I was most taken with that one.

The German Art exhibit is a controversial exhibit, as it features some of the artwork created during the Weimar Republic – the “sin” days in Berlin between 1919 – 1933, and the burning of said artwork by the Nazi’s on order from Hitler when he sent Joseph Goebbels in to “clean up Berlin” after he became chancellor of Germany. The Hirschfeld Institute, the world’s first sex research center, was on the top of the Nazi’s list for destruction, and many of the photos seen of the book burnings in Germany at that time were items from the Hirschfeld Institute. Priceless research and artwork were lost, and we have some of the items that were left behind represented in this exhibit. If governments can control people’s sexuality, they can control the people, and this was certainly true of Germany from 1933-1945.

The “Flesh” exhibit by Tracy Sydor. It’s dark and visceral. She has a style of photography that stuns people into silence. Her work is focused on domestic and sexual violence, and works with survivors to depict what they have been through, and how they have healed, in a very “in your face, you can’t look away” kind of way. We’ve mounted her work on floating frames that glow from the back, and the walls are wrapped to look like notepaper where people have begun writing about their own experiences with trauma. We’ve seen people freeze, cry, or wander subdued by each image. It’s powerful, meaningful and pulls in the viewer. My second favorite space in the Museum is the Sex Education exhibit. It’s an entire area of the Museum filled with sexual science and the exploration of sexuality from an academic perspective. I think it goes without saying this would be one of my favorites.