Hidden Histories of the Museum: Women Transforming Art Collections

• Region: London
• Type: Conference
• Cost: Ticketed

When and where

Thursday 23 October 2025

9.30 am – 5 pm, doors open at 9am (drinks reception 5pm–6pm for in-person attendees)

Pigott Theatre, National Gallery and online

Booking link for in-person tickets

Booking link for online tickets

About

This conference explores the multifaceted roles women have played in shaping museums, both nationally within the UK and internationally, particularly institutions that specialise in historic art. We examine how women have entered museum spaces as visitors, workers, benefactors, patrons, collectors, trustees, curators and photographers. These contributions, although often shaped by existing institutional and societal structures, have changed museum cultures in subtle and significant ways, sometimes by challenging established norms, and at other times by working within them to expand what museums could be and do.

Centred on the idea of ‘hidden histories’, the conference asks how women’s work in, with and around museums has been recorded – or overlooked – within dominant narratives of art and institutional history. What forms of labour have gone unrecognised? What social and economic conditions enabled certain women’s participation, and what connections, whether familial, financial or colonial, made that participation possible? And how might uncovering these histories shift our understanding of museums themselves: not simply as neutral repositories of art, but as cultural systems shaped by gender, power and care? The day’s papers explore how women’s contributions have been remembered, marginalised or erased, and how attending to these complexities can reframe our understanding of both museum history and art history today.

Further details about the schedule and programme can be found on the ticket page.

The Women and the Arts Forum

‘Hidden histories of the museum’ forms part of the programme for the National Gallery’s Women and the Arts Forum. You can find further details about the Forum and how to join here.

The Forum and this conference are generously supported by The Diane Apostolos-Cappadona Trust in honour of Stacia Apostolos.