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For the last two years, the Vagina Museum has been teaching Londoners about vaginas and vulvas, and erasing the stigma around gynaecological anatomy, from its home in Camden Market. The world’s first museum of its kind could now be under threat, though, after it revealed its lease would not be renewed.
The museum’s current location is set to be turned into a clothes shop at the end of September, leaving the Vagina Museum at the risk of becoming homeless.
The team behind the groundbreaking space revealed their plight on Twitter earlier this week (August 2) and said the only alternative they’d been given by Camden Market’s owners LabTech was a top-floor space that would ‘effectively relegate the Vagina Museum to the top shelf and out of sight’. ‘This simply won’t work for us: “vagina” is not a dirty word,’ they explained. ‘It should be visible within the community, battling the shame attached to the word, not hidden away like a dirty mag.’
We’d prefer not to air our linens in public (unless we’re showing you how vaginal acidity is normal). But we need to say something, and we need to ask your help. The pandemic has been rough for the entire museum sector. Now the Vagina Museum is at risk of becoming homeless.
— Vagina Museum (@vagina_museum) August 2, 2021
Instead, the team are looking for a new HQ that will be wheelchair accessible and based in a commercial and cultural quarter of London, and have put the call out to their supporters as their move-out date draws nearer. As well as asking for tips on any buildings that could house the ever-growing museum, they’re also looking for storage space in case the hub needs to be put on pause, and office space that will accommodate four desks. Sound like somewhere you know? Get in touch with the team on Twitter, Facebook or via their website.
Since it was launched as a pop-up moving around the country in 2017, the Vagina Museum has been working to destigmatise conversations around vaginas, while using its exhibition space and platform to raise awareness of issues around period poverty. Part of its mission is to also promote inclusivity, support trans rights and challenge heteronormative and cisnormative behaviour, making it a valuable part of progressive London.
Camden Market’s LabTech told the Evening Standard that, while the museum team had declined their offer of an alternative space, they are ‘still happy to negotiate should interest change at all’.