London's Vagina Museum raises funds for new premises

London's Vagina Museum raises funds for new premises.




By Yasmin Rufo
BBC News

The world's first vagina museum, which was forced to close earlier this year, has located a new premises.
But the London-based attraction must raise £85,000 by early June, in order to secure a six-year lease on the new property in the east of the city.
It has so far raised £43,000 - with more than £32,000 from the public and £11,500 behind the scenes.
The museum says it is in a "now-or-never" situation and fears permanent closure if the funds are not raised.
Florence Schechter, director of the Vagina Museum, said: "This is crunch time.
"We have every faith that we will meet our fundraising goal within this timeframe.

"Things have been touch-and-go for an emerging museum in a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis and we have so far risen to every challenge we have faced."

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It began in 2017 by hosting pop-up exhibitions before opening in Camden Market in 2019 with the exhibition Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How to Fight Them.
Last year, when it moved to Bethnal Green, it hosted the exhibitions Periods: A Brief History; and From A to V, which looked at gynaecological anatomy and activism.
The museum was asked to suddenly vacate the premises in Bethnal Green earlier this year as it was under a property guardianship scheme.
Since it opened in 2019, the museum has seen more than 175,000 visitors.