Florence Schechter to step down as director of Vagina Museum
Florence Schechter, who founded the Vagina Museum in London following a tweet back in 2017, has announced that she will step down as director of the organisation next month.
“It has been a great pleasure and privilege to have founded and led the Vagina Museum for the past seven years, so it is with immense gratitude and hope for the future I announce it is time for me to step down as director,” Schechter said in a statement.
“Taking the museum from just an idea to its long-term home in Bethnal Green has been an experience I will never forget. It has been an honour to work alongside the best people from museums, feminist activism, and health.
“I don't know what's next for me yet. This decision comes from a place of personal reflection and the recognition that it's time for me to take a step back and recharge. While the museum enters a new phase, I will rest and reflect. It's been a wild ride and I want to take some time to figure out what my next chapter is. I'm open to whatever opportunities the universe has to bring me.”
Zoe Williams, the Vagina Museum’s head of communications and fundraising will act as interim director for a six-month period.
Schechter’s departure is accompanied by a fundraising campaign to ease the transition period and celebrate Schechter’s achievements. Titled “Thank you for your cervix, Florence”, the campaign aims to raise £4,900 – £700 for each of the seven years of Schechter’s term as director. At the time of writing, it had raised £850.
The museum was born out of a tweet sent by Schechter in 2017 in which she wrote: “People, there is a penis museum in Iceland but no vagina museum anywhere in the world. Who wants to start one with me?”
It started as a series of pop-up events before opening in its first fixed premises in Camden Market in 2019. In 2021, its landlord, Camden Market, decided not to renew its lease, forcing the museum to launch a crowdfunding campaign to support its move to long-term fixed premises in Bethnal Green last year.