The Vagina Museum is the world's first

bricks and mortar Bricks and Mortar (foaled March 2, 2014) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was named the American Horse of the Year in 2019. After winning four of six starts at age three, he missed most of his four-year-old campaign due to illness. At a ...

museum about the female reproductive system. The project is based in the United Kingdom, and moved into its first fixed location in

Camden Market The Camden markets are a number of adjoining large retail markets, often collectively referred to as Camden Market or Camden Lock, located in the historic former Pickfords stables, in Camden Town, London. It is situated north of the Hampstead R ...

, London, in October 2019. Its first exhibition opened on 16 November 2019. It moved to its second premises in Bethnal Green on 19 March 2022 and was open to the public until Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

Description

The Vagina Museum was founded in response to a lack of gynaecological representation within the culture and heritage sector throughout the world. The museum usually hosts two temporary exhibitions per year which explore a multitude of topics surrounding gynaecological health, social history, activism and discourse, as well as an events programme of talks, workshops, comedy, theatre and performance art.

History

The project to create the Vagina Museum was launched when the founder, Florence Schechter, discovered there was a penis museum in Iceland, the

Icelandic Phallological Museum The Icelandic Phallological Museum ( is, Hið íslenzka reðasafn ), located in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest display of penises and penile parts. As of early 2020 the museum moved to a new location in Hafnartorg, three times t ...

, but there was no equivalent for the

vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...

vulva The vulva (plural: vulvas or vulvae; derived from Latin for wrapper or covering) consists of the external sex organ, female sex organs. The vulva includes the mons pubis (or mons veneris), labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, bulb of vestibu ...

2017–2018: Pop up phase

The Museum's first event, a comedy fundraiser, was held on 19 May 2017 headlined by Hayley Ellis. It has run a number of events since, including participating in a

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

with The Mothership Group called Superculture. Events as part of this residency have included a talk on "Vulvanomics" by

Emma L. E. Rees Emma L. E. Rees is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Chester. Career Dr. Emma L. E. Rees is professor in English and Gender Studies at the University of Chester, focusing on the early modern period, and on litera ...

, author of ''The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History'', and a screening of the film ''Teeth'' (see ''

vagina dentata ''Vagina dentata'' (Latin for ''toothed vagina'') describes a folk tale in which a woman's vagina is said to contain teeth, with the associated implication that sexual intercourse might result in injury, emasculation, or castration for the man i ...

'') followed by a Q&A with Amanda DiGioia, the author of ''Childbirth and Parenting in Horror Texts: The Marginalized and the Monstrous'' and various comedy nights. They have also held events at

Limmud Limmud is a British-Jewish educational charity which, in the UK, produces a large annual winter festival and several other regional events throughout the year on the theme of Jewish learning. Limmud is not affiliated to any strand of Judaism, ...

Festival 2017 and the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

. The Museum held its first exhibition in August 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its second pop up exhibition was called "Is Your Vagina Normal?", and it travelled around the UK to Ancient House, Thetford, Brainchild Festival 2018, SQIFF 2018, and Museums Association Conference 2018. In the 2017 Women of the Future Awards, Schechter was commended in the arts and culture category for her work with the Vagina Museum. A permanent museum was proposed with exhibitions on gynaecological anatomy from science to art to culture, which was to be trans-inclusive.

2019: Crowdfunding campaign and Camden Market premises

On 21 March 2019, the Vagina Museum launched a crowdfunder to raise money to open a premises in Camden Market. The project was supported by Camden Council, and leader of Camden Council Georgia Gould said:

Camden has a proud and radical history of challenging prejudice and orthodoxy, however, we acknowledge that the stigma associated with talking about gynaecological health has meant ignorance, confusion, shame, and poor medical care for too many. 65% of 16-to-25 year olds say they have a problem using the word vagina or vulva with almost half of 18-to-24 year old women say they are too embarrassed to talk about sexual health issues. We are therefore incredibly excited that the Vagina Museum is seeking to establish in Camden, and hope that it is funded to provide an inclusive and intersectional centre for learning, creativity, activism, and outreach that will add immeasurably to our collective understanding of our bodies.

The crowdfunder raised £48,945 and in October 2019, the museum moved into Camden Stables Market and began a programme of events. It opened its first exhibition, ''Muff Busters: vagina myths and how to fight them'' in November 2019. This exhibition was scheduled to end on 29 March 2020, but closed a few days earlier due to national lockdown restrictions in the UK. The next exhibition, ''Periods: A Brief History'' opened on 21 May 2021. In August 2021 the museum announced that its landlord had decided not to extend its lease beyond September of that year. The Camden Market site closed but the museum retained its online presence while it sought a new premises. On 22 February 2022, it announced a relocation to 18 Victoria Park Square in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

and a scheduled reopening date of 19 March 2022.

2022: Bethnal Green premises

On 19 March, the Vagina Museum reopened at 18 Victoria Park Square in

. The museum opened with its exhibition ''Periods: A Brief History'', along with a new permanent exhibition titled ''From A to V.'' Prior to the reopening, the museum was advertised on billboards in the vicinity with cheeky puns about other local businesses in the area.

References

{{reflist * 2017 establishments in the United Kingdom Vagina and vulva in art Museums established in 2017 Sex museums Vagina Sexuality in the United Kingdom Medical museums in the United Kingdom Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets