Exhibition Love at the Bode Museum

That crazy little thing called love is now in the spotlight at Berlin’s Bode Museum – and not just in the galleries! For museums.love, of course, the choice of love for an exhibition already gets five stars. But more than that, it’s wonderful to see how the theme of the show extends beyond the museum walls to embrace the community. Under the title “The Second Glance: All Forms of Love”, the exhibition aims to expand the view of love to include forms that have been marginalized in traditional Western art history. Smart to organize this show together with the Schwules Museum, Berlin’s LBGTQ* museum! With five paths through the permanent collection, the visitor can choose which theme to explore:

1. In Love and War (masculinity and bisexuality among soldiers)

2. Male Artists and Homosexuality (artists active in homosexual circles)

3. Art of Antiquity and Enlightened Collecting (homosexual collectors)

4. Heroines of Virtue (female intimacy and erotic love)

5. Crossing Borders (gender fluidity)

Not only is the museum seizing the chance to tell important, diverse new stories with its objects, but it is enriching the offerings with a lecture series (the next talk is next week!). I imagine that other types of events too could have appealed to the newer, more diverse audiences being addressed – like performing art shows and new kinds of participatory tours! But of course there is only so much one can do, and the show is already an enormous step into the 21st-century idea that museums exist for their communities. A free object catalog online increases access to the project, as well as a glossary and bibliography for the eager beavers among us. Hosting the lab.bode visitor engagement workshops as well, the Bode Museum is truly the community champion of Museum Island!