There She Goes Again: A Project on Gender Representation in Norwegian Museums’ Collections and Exhibition Practices

Abstract

Recent research has shown that Norwegian museums reproduce outdated ideas, power structures and inequities in their exhibitions and educational programmes, as well as in the management of their collections. In 2018, the Arts Council Norway granted the Norwegian Museum Network for Women’s History (led by the Women’s Museum in Norway) NOK 2.8 million (EUR 260,000) for a project aiming to change such anti-democratic practices. This article discusses the background for and development of this project. The project’s title, ‘There She Goes Again’, refers to an expression museum professionals are often confronted with when addressing the lack of women’s perspectives in their own institutions. The expression shows a patriarchal attitude that still persists in Norwegian museums. This project develops a methodology designed to help museum practitioners improve gender balance in their collections, as well as when curating new exhibitions. The focus is on museums’ everyday practices. One of the project’s challenges, but also one of its ambitions, is to devise a toolkit that can be easily implemented by museums to improve how gender is represented in museums. The Norwegian Museum Network for Women’s History will form pilot groups to test and evaluate the new methodology. This is an ongoing project that was initiated in January 2019 and will end in March 2021. This article presents the initial phases of the project and reflects upon the challenges we have thus far observed. It includes a critical discussion of the project, its methodology and the workgroup’s own practices.