Vagina Museum

Looking for a perfect venue for a unique Christmas party? Bring your fiercely feminist team to the Vagina Museum for a festive knees-up. We have some availability remaining for Christmas party bookings, starting from just £13 per head. Raise a glass together, and enjoy an educational experience as a team. https://lnkd.in/eVWBfHzV

Permanent signage is now installed to mark our newly-renamed galleries honouring the Mothers of Gynaecology. Every visitor to the Vagina Museum has the opportunity to learn Lucy, Betsey and Anarcha's story and speak their names. Join us on 23rd October for an evening of reflection, reckoning and hopefully catharsis as we mark the renaming of our galleries and #BlackHistoryMonth with a phenomenal panel convened by our Front Of House Manager Katja Holtz pictured above with the new signage. Book here: https://lnkd.in/e7Wpr4Td

Join us on 23rd October to inaugurate our newly-named galleries in an evening of reflection, reckoning and, hopefully, catharsis, with a panel of three incredible women: Edem Ntumy (she/her) is the Chief Exec of Reproductive Justice Initiative (Formerly Decolonising Contraception), with over a decade of experience working with communities and advocacy in sexual and reproductive health. A recipient of the 2022 Olive Morris Memorial Award in remembrance of community leader and activist Olive Elaine Morris.   AZ (she/her) is a mixed heritage Muslim and a pregnancy ending doula. She is the founder and one of the community doulas at the Ad'iyah Collective, who support Muslims and their communities navigating abortion, miscarriage and stillbirth. Outside of the doula world, AZ is a writer, researcher and facilitator, with a particular focus on gendered racial violence.    Princess Banda (she/ her) is a socio-medical anthropologist who, amongst many things, is a writer, educator, and researcher. Princess is currently a DPhil Anthropology student at the University of Oxford and is cultivating a research pathway which embraces the intersections between socio-medical anthropology, women’s health, racial and social justice, and critical qualitative research methods. Her areas of interest include racial health disparities, socio-structural and political determinants of health, biopolitics, biopsychosociality, maternal health and, more recently, bioethics. #BlackHistoryMonth https://lnkd.in/e7Wpr4Td

The history of gynaecology is a history of racism and violence. To coincide with Black History Month, we have renamed our three galleries to honour the Mothers of Gynaecology: Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy. Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy were enslaved Black women living in 19th century Alabama, which is now part of The United States of America. All three women had injuries following childbirth. They were subjected to multiple experimental surgeries, all performed without anaesthesia by a white physician who is lauded as the “Father of Modern Gynaecology”. The use of enslaved Black women for human experimentation was normal in the Antebellum South. This man later became rich and famous, using the techniques he developed using human experimentation on white women, which he performed with anaesthesia. In total, twelve women that we know of were subjected to experimental operations undertaken without their consent, without anaesthesia, and in front of an audience. Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy are the only ones whose names were recorded. In recent years, anti-racist activism has drawn attention to the experience of the Mothers of Gynaecology. Plaques and statues celebrating the man who tortured them are being removed, and in their place, monuments to the Mothers of Gynaecology are being built. In naming our galleries after Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy, we are ushering them into public discourse about racism in medicine. We are acknowledging the horrific violence that they suffered. We are reckoning with the racism and injustice still faced by Black women and women of colour in gynaecological care. We will be installing permanent signage within the Vagina Museum to mark the galleries' names and tell the stories of the Mothers of Gynaecology. Save the date for an event to inaugurate the newly-named galleries: 23rd October 2024. Image: Detail from "Herstory" by Malikah Holder, displayed in Anarcha's Gallery in 2024.

Sadly, owing to the ongoing fundraising situation, we have taken the decision to delay our exhibition Menopause: What's Changed until early next year. We'd hoped to open on 18th October - World Menopause Day - but this won't be possible. This delay will enable us to do this crucial theme justice, giving us more time to raise funds, or explore how to bring you the best possible exhibition on a much smaller budget. In the near future, we'll be opening up calls to participate in the exhibition and programming. We'll also be celebrating menopause in other ways before the exhibition opens. But nothing compares to giving menopause the prominence it deserves in a museum exhibition. Do you believe the world needs menopause proudly on display? Do you believe in carving out a cultural space for menopause after millennia of silence? Every donation makes a huge difference. Just £10 brings us closer to our goal and helps to change the world. https://lnkd.in/e9MQB9n8

Between Brexit, rising costs and supply chain problems we could make a depressing post. Instead, here's some merch we can't stock any more because of those things, and you - yes you! - can get 10% off our Last Chance collection with the code LASTCHANCE https://lnkd.in/e4-nPefZ

You are claw-dially invited to a collaboration like no other. From 9th-11th August, we're coming out of our shells and popping up at the Crab Museum in Margate. To celebrate Margate Pride, you can find us in the Claw Learning Studio at the Crab Museum with a pop-up exhibition on these dates. Admission to the Crab Museum is free, so don't be a hermit - please scuttle in and say hello.

Could you be our new Treasurer? Our Board of Trustees is recruiting! In this voluntary Treasurer role, you will contribute to the strategic direction of the Vagina Museum and fulfill administrative, financial and legal requirements. The expected time commitment is five to eight hours per month, and the majority of responsibilities can be carried out remotely. You don't need previous trustee experience to apply, but a commitment and passion for intersectional feminism is essential. https://lnkd.in/d68TDGN

Can the Vagina Museum come to you? You bet your (front) bottom dollar we can! We can come to your workplace, community group, school, or anywhere else and lead engaging, educational activities right where you are. https://lnkd.in/ejr2hGz2

Have you been looking at the prices of train tickets to Edinburgh and weeping? Stay right here in London and join us for our very own Minge Fringe. Over the coming weeks we're bringing you performance, comedy, as well as film and book talks... and even throwing some Edinburgh previews into the mix. Join us for as little as £5 a ticket. https://lnkd.in/eZ3GbWji