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, but there was no equivalent for the
vagina or
vulva.
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 with The Mothership Group called Superculture. Events as part of this residency have included a talk on "Vulvanomics" by
Emma L. E. Rees, author of
The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History, and a screening of the 2007 film
Teeth (see
vagina dentata) 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 Festival 2017 and the
Royal Institution. 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, 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: 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 opened on 21 May 2021. In August 2021, the museum announced that its landlord had decided not to extend its lease beyond September. 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 and a scheduled reopening date of 19 March 2022.
2022–2023: Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green premises On 19 March, the Vagina Museum reopened at 18 Victoria Park Square in
Bethnal Green. 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. The Vagina Museum closed its original Bethnal Green premises on 2 February 2023.
2023–present: Poyser Street, Bethnal Green premises Following a fundraising drive in 2023 raising over £85,000 in which over 2,500 people donated, the museum found new premises on Poyser Street, Bethnal Green. It signed a lease with The Arch Co for six years. The museum reopened in November 2023, initially on the ground floor only as lifts were not yet available. A range of temporary exhibitions are planned, with the first one about
endometriosis. Its first exhibition in its temporary gallery, titled "
Endometriosis: Into The Unknown" was created in collaboration with Oxford EndoCare, part of the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, and the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics based at the
University of Oxford. In 2024, the Vagina Museum opened two further galleries, a "community gallery" and a permanent exhibition gallery. During
Pride 2024, the
Crab Museum in
Margate hosted a temporary exhibition in partnership with the Vagina Museum. In October 2024, to mark
Black History Month, the Museum announced that the galleries would be named after the "Mothers of Gynecology", Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey. ==See also==