The John Rylands Library in òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ announces a major new exhibition: The Secret Public: LGBTQ Pop 1955 – 1985
15 May - 15 November 2025
Press release
- Landmark exhibition shows the extraordinary contribution LGBTQ artists have made to popular culture
- Celebrates 30 years of LGBTQ pop and its wider influence
- Uncovers some of the lesser-known stories of LGBTQ figures in the mainstream of popular culture with archive material from public and private collections
Connected exhibition events programme features key performers and commentators from the time
Launching The John Rylands Library’s redeveloped exhibitions gallery, The Secret Public: LGBTQ Pop 1955 – 1985 examines the profound influence of LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly performers, artists and activists on mainstream pop culture. Co-curated with Professor of Popular Culture, Jon Savage and taking his book The Secret Public - How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture 1955 - 1979 as a starting point, the exhibition has been extended through to 1985. It foregrounds the artists, figures, social issues and political discourse from within which a lasting creative legacy was produced, one that still resonates today.
This new exhibition presents key pieces from the extensive archive of research materials collected by Jon Savage over many years which is now as part of the Library’s British Pop Archive. It includes further materials from òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ Library’s Special Collections and key private loans including items never before on public display. Posters, magazines, books, promotional photographs and record sleeves trace the extraordinary contribution LGBTQ performers have made throughout those years, enhanced by audio and video providing an evocative soundtrack to this story.
The exhibition takes a thematic and chronological journey through the materials, foregrounding the pioneering artists, musicians, actors, managers and activists who pushed both the social and creative boundaries of their time and their chosen field to agitate, provoke, protest, engage, enlighten and delight.
The Secret Public explores LGBTQ culture and its huge capacity for both profound artistic statements and groundbreaking entertainment and will relaunch The John Rylands Library's world-class exhibition galleries following our transformative Next Chapter project. In our 125th year, we are marking not only the fact that one of the world’s greatest libraries happens to be in the centre of òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ but that it was given to the people of the city at its opening on 1st January 1900. òòò½ÎÑÊÓƵ is a city synonymous with LGBTQ culture and we are excited to celebrate this in our anniversary year.
The Secret Public: LGBTQ Pop 1955 -1985' is a thirty-year history of LGBTQ oppression and resistance, seen through the lens of popular culture. This exhibition brings the book to life through striking visuals, with materials I’ve collected over a 40-year period. I'm delighted that they are now part of the British Pop Archive.
Find out more
Find out more about the exhibition and Rylands125 on the John Rylands Library website: