The Secret Public

17 Jul 2024

Opening in Spring 2025, The Secret Public exhibition examines the profound influence of LGBTQ+ performers, artists and activists on mainstream popular culture.

Influenced by Jon Savage's recently published The Secret Public - How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture 1955 - 1979, the exhibition presents key pieces from Savage's extensive collection of archive and research materials which form part of the British Pop Archive.

The Secret Public will be the inaugural exhibition in the newly refurbished Special Exhibition gallery, part of the John Rylands Next Chapter project.

Jon Savage, author and Professor of Popular Culture at The University of Manchester said: "These materials have been collected over a forty year period and represent one of the largest private queer archives in the country. I am very pleased to announce that they are now within the British Pop Archive."