Vagina Museum rescued by creatives doing their bit for the bits of Britain
You may not be anywhere near the office water cooler right now, but we still want to spotlight the most talked about creative from the brands that should be on your radar. Today, we’re talking about the Vagina Museum’s silent auction, led by ad creatives who want you to do your bit for the bits of Britain.
Artist Laurie Lee created a provocative piece on the clandestine phrase, 'See You Next Tuesday.'
Given that the famous Icelandic Phallological Museum has been open for over 20 years, it was about time someone established a dedicated space for the female sexual organ. This was the opinion of Florence Schechter when she founded the world’s first ’Vagina Museum’ – a space in Camden Market that’s now full of everything vulva related, from giant tampons to glittery menstrual cups.
Ever since the museum grew from that thought, it has been mainly funded via a public fundraising drive – which worked fine until the pandemic left it bleeding money. Opened only last year, it has since been pushed to the precipice of closure as it receives no government, council, public or private funding, relying entirely on funding from events, membership programmes and ticket sales.
To help the museum get back on its feet ahead of its reopening, three ad creatives (Nathalie Gordon, Amy Fasey and Jacob Hellström) approached Schechter and offered their combined expertise for free.
The creatives reached out to artists of different disciplines, genders, sexualities and nationalities, asking them to produce original artwork and 60 responded to the brief. The resulting ’Open Soon’ series will be sold in a silent auction to raise money for the museum.
Artists who provided artworks for the auction range from Mr Bingo, who produced a line drawing of pubic hair, to Laurie Lee, who created a provocative piece on the clandestine phrase ’See You Next Tuesday’.
To raise awareness of the silent auction and the reopening of the museum, prints of the works have been posted across London using media space donated by London Lites and Jack Agency.