It was a labor of amore. The new Italian American Museum — which swings its doors open to the public Monday at its sleek digs on 151 Mulberry St. in Little Italy — was an idea more than 20 years in the making, according to its founder Joseph V. Scelsa. “Every group should have their culture recognized and seen by the public at large,” Scelsa told The Post. “Italians have never had a museum.”

Scelsa — a longtime dean of the Calandra Institute, CUNY Queens College’s branch of Italian education, among other bona fides — said the Italian history exhibit he curated in 1999 for the New York Historical Society drew 100,000 people, making it one of the most successful exhibitions in the society’s history. “I realized that you can reach more people in a museum than in the classroom,” he said.