51Âþ»­

A new Andrew Logan exhibition was officially opened at 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) by Alternative Miss World title holder, Janet Slee.

The Extravagant Delights and Global Fantasies collection delves into Andrew Logan’s life of fantasy and creativity and will be on display at 51Âþ»­’s Leicester Gallery from 7-29 February.

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Andrew Logan's paintings, photos and anecdotes on display in the Leicester Gallery

The exhibition will form part of 51Âþ»­ Pride - the university’s month-long celebrations to mark LGBT+ History Month - and will showcase a range of letters, photographs, paintings and artefacts from The Andrew Logan archive.

Founder of the Alternative Miss World competition, which created a space for people to freely express their gender and sexuality without prejudice, much of Logan’s work paid homage to the LGBTQ+ community. In 2022, the Andrew Logan archive was gifted to 51Âþ»­, which was funded by The National Archives to catalogue the collection.

The exhibition will be an opportunity to explore some of the discoveries made by the 51Âþ»­ Special Collections team during cataloguing, view materials from the collection and soak in Logan's vibrant, expressive art.

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Expressive window display 

Andrew’s sister and current Alternative Miss World, Janet Slee, attended the opening on his behalf and said: “I’m delighted to be opening the exhibition here at 51Âþ»­, I feel very honoured actually.

“The first Alternative Miss World began in 1972 and it was for anyone and everyone so Andrew was way ahead of his time of being inclusive of everyone, which is what the LGTBQ+ community stands for.

“I suspect people might be quite surprised by the collection, as it shows just how early on Andrew’s work was inclusive of anyone and everyone. It was just a natural thing to him, it wasn’t as if he was making a thing about it. It was just what he did.”

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Artefacts inside the cabinet on display

There were many talks about where Andrew’s archive would land, but for Janet, it seemed as though 51Âþ»­ was the obvious choice.

“As you can imagine, there were many people talking to Andrew about where his archive could go, both in the UK and overseas.

“And when it was offered to come here to De Montfort, he was thrilled because his mother lived in Leicester and in De Montfort Street, so where else would it go?”

Andrew couldn’t attend the launch as he was away in India. During the launch, Janet read out a message on behalf of Andrew.

“Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Sorry not to be with you. Sending sunshine and love from sunny Goa. Thank you for your hard work and support. Luv, Andrew.”

The exhibition is open to the public from 7-29 February, 9am-5pm at the Leicester Gallery, located on 51Âþ»­’s campus within the Vijay Patel Building.