J. Frederic “Fritz” Lohman was a pioneering gay art patron. Together with his partner Charles Leslie, Lohman launched the first gay art space in New York in the Soho loft in New York City in 1969, exhibiting homoerotic art that most art galleries deemed too controversial at that time. Lohman and Leslie were also major players in the establishment and development of the Soho district advocating for the preservation of the historic cast-iron buildings, as an arts community, and ultimately as a trendsetting commercial hub. Their efforts resulted in the designation of the Soho-Cast Iron Historic District by the NYC Landmark Preservations Commission in 1973.
Lohman and Leslie opened another gallery in a basement space on Broome St., and in 1987 co-founded the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, a non-profit organization created to preserve the works of LGBTQ artists, which has grown exponentially, and opened the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, the first gay art museum in the world. The museum collection includes work by Keith Haring, Marion Pinto, Delmas Howe, David Hockney, and Robert Mapplethorpe.