Image: Entrance to the Museum Vagina Museum in 2024
The museum is looking to the public to fund a £58,000 exhibition about its ‘most requested topic’.
The Vagina Museum has turned to public fundraising for its £58,000 an exhibition surrounding menopause.
The museum claims it had approached more than arts and heritage 15 funders, which it did not name, and said none had chosen to support the project.
Zoe Williams, the museum’s Interim Director said it had “tried almost every avenue for funding this exhibition”, adding, “I cannot believe that none of the funders we approached were interested in supporting an exhibition about a common life event which happens to half of us.”
“Even as media attention on menopause and public demand for information grows, it just doesn’t seem to be a priority for funders. We’d have preferred not to find ourselves in a position of asking the public for money to support this project, but this is the only option left available if we are to make Menopause: What’s Changed? happen.”
The exhibition, ‘Menopause: What’s Changed?’, is scheduled to open in October 2024, which is World Menopause Day. It will explore menopause in the past; how menopause became medicalised; and personal experiences of menopause including LGBT+ experiences and early menopause.
It is not the first time the museum has turned to crowdfunding for capital. Last year it met its extended crowdfunding target of £85,000, allowing it to move into a new location.
More recently it raised £1,700 of a £4,900 crowdfunding goal for capital to assist in its transition to a new director, after Florence Schechter announced she would step down from the role.
Sarah Harman, trustee of the Vagina Museum and Research Programme Manager at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: “Since we first opened our doors, menopause has been one of our most-requested topics.
“Amid growing misconceptions and misinformation surrounding menopause, it’s more urgent than ever that we try to cut through the noise. We would love nothing more than to centre menopause in an exhibition, but to do this we need your help as nobody else is interested in funding this vital work.
The campaign has raised £2,500 at the time of writing.
