Celebrating Pride Month Sacramento’s Beloved Kennedy Gallery is Closing

Kennedy Gallery has made its home in the renovated Victorian at the corner of 20th & L Streets, once the former home of B-Bops Costumes and the original Lambda Community Center for almost ten of its 17 years. The gallery hosted three floors of art, scores of resident artists, hundreds of exhibits, and won numerous Best of Sacramento awards. There is no question why it was dubbed “The Jewel of Midtown.”

But Lavender Heights is losing another yet institution as owner and curator Michael Kennedy has announced its closure on Sunday June 25 with the 2023 Twenty-20 exhibit as its closing show.

Feeling reborn after spending six months in a coma from Pericarditis, Kennedy began to pursue his dream of a collaborative gallery—a dream many said he would never achieve. But it not only came through, it thrived.

In April 2007 the gallery moved from its original space into a building adjacent to Mango’s on 20th & K Streets. Five years later it would move into the freshly renovated Victorian where it has remained since.

Through its 17 years Kennedy Gallery has made no bones about being an LGBTQ business. Kennedy and his resident artists have donated 100s of pieces of artwork to charity functions over the years including Golden Rule Services, WEAVE, Rainbow Chamber, CARES, CGNIE and so many more.

Kennedy himself has been one of the hardest people in the Sacramento LGBTQ community working with multiple organizations, planning and volunteering for countless events and doing endless fundraising in his desire to foster a strong and supportive atmosphere for generations to come.

But after two years of COVID and an economic climate still in recovery, Sacramento’s once robust arts scene is still struggling to recover.

“We’ve lost so many of our community galleries,” says Kennedy. “Patrons aren’t buying art because they’re just trying to make it in a time where the cost of living is out of control. Still, seventeen years isn’t bad for a gallery I was told would never succeed,” Kennedy chuckles, having the last laugh.

The gallery it will be closing its doors on June 30, 2023. They will be open from noon to 6 p.m., and all items, including the display cabinets, are up to 50% off.

Kennedy himself has been one of the