You may remember the article we shared in October 2019 about the world’s first Vagina Museum opening in London. Founded by Director Florence Schechter who successfully raised money via an initial crowdfunding campaign, she wanted to open a bricks and mortar museum dedicated to sharing important information about sexual health and promote artwork dedicated to this mission.
Like many businesses, the museum had to close earlier in 2020 due to COVID-19, but now they are open again, almost year on from their launch, and celebrating with a new fundraising campaign and art auction.
On September 21st they launched their ‘Open Soon’ campaign, where they not only let people know they are reopening on October 3rd but also try to raise some much-needed funds in the process.
In a drive to keep the Vagina Museum open and keep it spreading knowledge, empowering women and people with vulvas, and raising awareness of social justice and public health – something the public just cannot afford to lose – three Advertising Creatives (Nathalie Gordon, Amy Fasey, Jacob Hellström) approached Director Florence Schechter in May, offering their help for free.
“I’m so excited to have the Museum open again and spreading the vulva love. The pandemic hit us pretty hard because we have no external funding, and we are so new that we were not eligible for most government support. Staying safe is our highest priority and we will be doing everything we can to keep our staff, volunteers and visitors as safe as possible,” said Director Florence in a press statement.
Together they reached out to artists of different genders, sexualities, nationalities and disciplines to ask if they would create a piece of original art for the Museum to be sold with all proceeds going back to the Museum in a bid to keep it open.
“Businesses have been pounded during COVID and no more so than the arts sector. Having inclusive spaces like the Vagina Museum where people of all walks of life can come and learn about everything from FGM to the basic science of the vagina, whilst also having access to evening events about sex positivity and safe and inclusive community outreach programs – these are all things we cannot afford to lose. And we will if the Museum continues to lose money,” Creative Director Nathalie Gordon said in a statement.
“It’s been a privilege to help in this small way and I hope by helping get more vulvas on people’s walls we raise some much-needed cash to keep the Museum going,” she continued.
The Vagina Museum operates on a fully inclusive basis and is proud to be an LGBTQ+ and intersex ally – it was paramount that the people approached to work on this campaign (and the work created) were representative of that.
“It’s been an absolute honor to donate our spare time to such an important cause. I can only say a massive thank you to every artist who has donated their work, and to the Vagina Museum for the opportunity. It’s been a really special thing to see everyone come together on this exciting, empowering and educational project. I hope that together we can raise a good amount of cash for the museum’s opening,” said Creative Amy Fasey in a statement.
In the end, 58 artists created unique pieces based on the vagina. From embroidered textile banners from Millie Sewell-Knight to line drawing of public hair from Mr. Bingo to gold leaf covered clay casts of the clitoris from Merissa Hylton to a queer self-portrait from Ezra Smith, the breath of original pieces available is truly unique.
The auction will run for the next two weeks up until doors reopen on October 3rd, selling each piece as a 1/1 unless otherwise stated. Due to COVID, the auction will be online only and to democratize the process and give everyone the opportunity to own a piece of world-class art, the Museum has decided to host the auction as silent, whereby anyone can make an offer on a piece (over the reserve) and the best offer will win.
The auction will be hosted online at www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/opensoon and all bids can be made by emailing opensoon@vaginamuseum.com and quoting the name of the piece.
In a bid to shout about those who have kindly donated their time and talents to the museum, and also drive as much interest in the auction as possible, every day in the two-week run up to reopening, each piece will be celebrated and shared on the Vagina Museum social channels.
“The artists deserve the biggest ‘thank you’ – they have very generously donated their time and art to the museum during an extremely trying time and it will ultimately make a huge difference to a lot of people. Their selfless dedication is truly a testament to the importance of the Vagina Museum,” said Creative Jacob Hellström about the work featured in the auction.
Posters have also been created for each artist and will be going up on digital billboards across London. DOOH space has been donated to the Museum by LondonLites and Fly Poster sites have been donated by Jack Agency.
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