About us
QueerMuzeum Warszawa is a grassroots initiative, an open space for engaging with the history of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. It serves as a repository for documents, artifacts, and testimonies, offering a platform to preserve and share them. As the first institution of its kind in Poland and one of the few worldwide, the museum aims to complement mainstream history, reclaim what has been forgotten, erased, or silenced, and restore the presence of marginalized narratives.
The museum is centrally located in the heart of Warsaw, on Marszałkowska Street, with a prominent, street-facing entrance. The ground floor, visible through large windows, will host a public space for exhibitions and temporary projects, including a permanent timeline showcasing the history of LGBTQ+ communities in Poland. On the mezzanine, visitors will have access to the Museum’s Archive and Library. In the spring of 2025, a plaque commemorating LGBTQ+ individuals persecuted during World War II will be unveiled on the façade of QueerMuzeum, marking the first such tribute in Poland.
The museum embraces its grassroots nature and scale as a strength, experimenting with innovative approaches to researching and presenting history that may be out of reach for larger, more established institutions. It is intentionally incomplete, evolving, and dynamic—rebellious, unapologetically bold, and delightfully queer.
QueerMuzeum aims to craft a living, multifaceted narrative reflecting the richness and diversity of queer experiences. It will celebrate shared history, agency, and the power of individual and collective resistance while also honoring the victims of discrimination and violence. We strive to be a learning institution, grounded in honesty and integrity toward our own history.
QueerMuzeum Warszawa is an initiative by Lambda Warszawa, Poland’s oldest LGBTQ+ organization, which has a long-standing record of social and support work. The museum will steward the Lambda Warszawa Archive, the largest repository of LGBTQ+ community records in Poland, accumulated since 1997. The archive contains over 100,000 items, including press clippings, magazines, leaflets, posters, documents, photographs, and more, dating from 1906 to 2024. The museum’s development is supported by a volunteer Program Council that bridges connections with activist and research communities, laying the groundwork for the vibrant community QueerMuzeum seeks to build.
The museum exists here and now, drawing upon the foundation of history and tradition to bear witness to the present and stand alongside queer communities in their fight for rights and well-being. It seeks to inspire imagination and action toward building a better future.
Location
QueerMuzeum Warszawa is located in the heart of the capital, at 83 Marszałkowska Street.
The ground floor of the building features an exhibition hall of nearly 60 square meters. This space houses the permanent exhibit, The Timeline, alongside smaller temporary exhibitions, which we plan to update approximately every four months.
On the first floor, you’ll find the new home of the Lambda Warszawa Archive, the editorial office of the magazine QueerStoria, a small library, and an intimate meeting space. This floor also accommodates miniature temporary exhibitions.
The interiors of QueerMuzeum were designed by the Ślusarczyk & Willimzik Design Team, while the spatial concept for the permanent exhibition was created by Anna Sarnowska and Daniel Szwed.
People

Sociologist, academic lecturer, graduate of the Human Rights School HFPC, LGBT activist. Co-founder of Lambda Warszawa Association; coordinator of its support activities; co-founder of the Lambda Warszawa-run Helpline for Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Their Loved Ones and its employee from 1995 to 2015. Chair of the Association from 2007 to 2024 (with breaks). Coordinator of numerous projects carried out by Lambda Warszawa. Creator of the Lambda Warszawa Archive, which holds the largest collection of materials related to the history of Poland’s non-heteronormative community. Editor-in-chief of the QueerStoria magazine.

He is a director, dramaturg, educator, and creator in the field of intersecting social and performative arts. He holds a Master’s degree from the Das Arts/DAS Theatre program and completed THIRD, a program for artist-researchers. He has worked as a dramaturg at the National Old Theatre in Krakow and the Studio Theatre in Warsaw. Szymon is a co-creator of IPOP, a platform focused on queer pedagogy, and has a keen interest in HIV-related culture. His projects address topics such as transnational queer activism, migration, socially engaged performance, LGBTQ+ archives, and collective actions. In 2023, he received a City of Warsaw Scholarship for research on Bob Mellors and traces of British activism in Poland. He works between Warsaw and Amsterdam.

Doctor of Social Sciences, works as a grantmaker supporting various movements related to human rights, climate issues, and anti-corruption activities. Until 2017, he was affiliated with the Trans-Fuzja Foundation and the European transgender rights movement. He currently resides in New York.

Doctor of Literature, assistant professor at the Institute of Polish Literature at the University of Warsaw, and Fulbright scholar at Columbia University. She is a member of the Research Lab on LGBT+ History and Identities at the University of Warsaw and a lecturer in the Postgraduate Gender Studies program at the Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences. She is a recipient of the START Scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science and a finalist of the Poznań Literary Award – Barańczak Scholarship. Author of the monograph Kalkowska. Biogeografia (Gdańsk 2020), she has published in “Teksty Drugie”, “Pamiętnik Literacki”, and “Czas Kultury”. She is currently working on a book about the sapphic works of Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian modernist writers and a queer biography of Narcyza Żmichowska. Originally from Jawor in Lower Silesia, she now resides in Warsaw.
(Photo: Emilia Oksentowicz)

Art historian, curator at the Museum of Art in Łódź, and PhD candidate at the Department of History at Central European University in Vienna. He has curated and co-curated exhibitions at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga, AdBK Nürnberg, and the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere in Rome. He is a fellow of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure and DAAD TheMuseumsLab. His work has been published in e-flux, Krytyka Polityczna, Szum, and exhibition catalogs. He is a member of the program council of TRAFO in Szczecin and the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

Historian and archivist, graduate of Gender Studies at the Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences. PhD candidate at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Since 2020, she has been coordinating education and oral history at the Social Archives Center (Warsaw). Previously, she worked at the KARTA Center Foundation, where she coordinated oral history projects. Since 2022, she has served as the vice president of the Polish Oral History Association.
(Photo: Adam Stępiński / Social Archives Center)

Professor at the University of Warsaw, historian of ideas, academic teacher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Warsaw (Department of History of Ideas and Cultural Anthropology). Co-founder and head of the Research Lab on LGBT+ History and Identities at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Warsaw.

Historian, film critic, and playwright. Doctor of Humanities in the field of history. Her research focuses on issues related to sexual violence during World War II and the forgotten victims of Nazism. Author of “Przemilczane. Seksualna praca przymusowa w czasie II wojny światowej” (2018) and “Mój Führerze! Ofiary przymusowej sterylizacji na Dolnym Śląsku w latach 1934-44” (2019). Winner of the Orfeo Iris Award 2021 from the ILGCN (International Rainbow Culture Network) for research and publications on the history of non-heteronormative people during World War II. For her book “Oni. Homoseksualiści w czasie II wojny światowej”, she received the “NIKE” Reader’s Award in 2022.
(Photo: Elisa Georgi, ZK/U Berlin)

Writer, architecture researcher, architect by training, occasional exhibition curator, translator, and editor. Author of books such as Najlepsze miasto świata, Gdynia obiecana, Starzyński. Prezydent z pomnika. Winner of numerous awards, including the Paszport Polityki, Nike Reader’s Award, the Literary Award of the City of Warsaw, the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Bronze Medal Gloria Artis.

Cultural studies scholar and artist. She conducts research on the experiences of non-heteronormative women during the PRL period and the political transformation in Poland. Between 2018 and 2019, she was a member of the research project CRUSEV – CRUISING THE SEVENTIES. She is an assistant professor at the Museum of Wola, a branch of the Museum of Warsaw, where she curated the exhibition “Kim Lee. Królowa Warszawy” (2023).

Literature historian and professor at the University of Silesia. His research primarily focuses on Polish prose from the 20th and 21st centuries. He studies literature in the context of gender and sexual (non)normativity discourses (with research in gender studies, queer theory, and critical studies of men and masculinities).

Publicist and biographer, LGBT activist, member of Krytyka Polityczna. Editor of the bimonthly Replika published by the Replika Foundation. He publishes in Zadra, Nowe Książki, and on the portal Inna strona. On Tok FM, he co-hosts the program Lepiej późno niż wcale.

Artist and activist. Graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Arts in Poznań. In his artistic practice, he combines political actions and artistic gestures. He focuses on archiving at the intersection of art and activism (“Archiwa Niezgody”).
(Photo: Alina Żemojdzin)
Donors
We sincerely thank all the individuals and companies who supported us by donating to our fundraiser and sending us gifts.
QueerMuzeum would not exist without your efforts. We are grateful to the following companies: JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, PwC, Linklaters, Levis, T Mobile, PrintMedia24. We appreciate and ask for your continued support!
We are deeply touched by the involvement of individual donors—every contribution matters! All donors who have donated at least 1000 PLN to QueerMuzeum will be acknowledged on the walls of QM, in its publications, and here!
Here they are:
- Krzysztof Kliszczyński
- Rafał Demczuk i Adam Badowski
- Tomasz Kliszczyński
- Andrzej Selerowicz i John Clark
- Michał Pawlęga i Marcin Knutel
- Kacper Kalin i Marcin Kutwin
- Patryk Chilewicz
- Jan Hejwowski
- Mika Wesołowska
- Jarosław Basiel
- Lex Chomczyk
- Agnieszka Poszepczyńska
- Radek Oliwa
- Rafał Kowalski
- Franciszek Klebański
- Yga Kostrzewa
- Ulrich Gooß
- Agata Bogacka
- Fundacja Filmgramm