ABOUT US
İstanbul Gender Museum
Established in 2022, Istanbul Gender Museum designs and realizes physical and virtual exhibition concepts accompanied by museum pedagogy modules, cultural events, publications and alternative communication methods.
The Istanbul Gender Museum's Approach to Gender
Gender is based on individuals’ self-declarations. Every individual has the right to freely define themselves. Beyond the binary definition of woman and man, there are queer existences. The concept of gender is influenced by factors such as time, place and culture; it can vary from society to society, from individual to individual, or throughout an individual’s life, and it is fluid and subjective in nature, enriched by the activism of subjects.
Based on the understanding that museums should act as a platform for working against inequality and achieving social justice Istanbul Gender Museum recognizes the inequalities, discrimination, and domination created by the binary gender regime and works to establish inclusive and intersectional spaces beyond the heteronormative and cisnormative understanding of museology.
Organisational structure of the Istanbul Gender Museum
The carrying organisation of Istanbul Gender Museum is The Gender Studies Association (Toplumsal Cinsiyet Araştırmaları Derneği). The association was registered on February, 14th 2022 in Istanbul.
Istanbul Gender Museum started to work in October 2021 (official registration 14 February 2022) with 18 volunteer women* and men* of different ages (between 23 and 73), different background and expertise.
The museum has no paid staff, it runs only by volunteers.
All volunteers in the Istanbul Women’s Museum are unsalaried. There are no salaried members.
All board members of the carrying organisation of Istanbul Gender Museum is The Gender Studies Association are women*.
Istanbul Gender Museum makes sure that people of all genders, ethnic, cultural, religious … backgrounds are reflected in the decisions of the museum work.
The vision and mission of the Istanbul Gender Museum
In 1974, a decisive change was realised in ICOM’s museum definition, adding to the former definition the principle that “[a museum must be] in the service of society and of its development”. Our museum feels committed to this definition. For their development societies need peace. Istanbul Gender Museum’s vision is to contribute to a peaceful society in Turkey, just because living in peace is a fundamental human right. The lack of peace affects our lives and has exhausted our activists’ energy for generations. Our dream is an inclusive society in Turkey and we are determined to make this dream come true: a society which offers opportunities for dialogue between ethnic groups, people of different mother tongues, social classes, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, between disabled and non-disabled people, people of various ages and religious affiliations. A society without stigmatisation and discrimination. This is our vision, the idea behind the foundation of our museum and the reason for our voluntary commitment.
Mission
Based on its research and application-oriented concepts Istanbul Gender Museum develops physical and virtual exhibitions. Feminist museum pedagogy modules and cultural activity concepts in the exhibitions – so far unknown in the Turkish museum landscape – are must-haves for our museum work.
Each project of the museum follows principles of intersectionality and inclusion, taking account of factors such as mother tongue, ethnic group, social class, cultural background, sexual orientations, disability, religious affiliation and age.
With each project the museum opens alternative spaces for discussing gender roles in various fields, in women’s history, politics, education, work, culture, art and the climate crisis.
About the value of Istanbul Gender Museum in the Turkish context
As the first gender museum in Turkey Istanbul Gender Museum practices feminist social peace because the project proposed
- consists in socially engaged art and education practice. The project involves people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction.
- shows alternatives for displaying inclusion which is understood as an intersectional issue.
promotes an alternative museums’ narrative including the lives of (sexually, ethnically, racially) marginalized groups.
The policy of Istanbul Gender Museum regarding gender equality
Gender equality is at the very heart of Istanbul Gender Museums values.
Istanbul Gender Museum is a defender of the gender equality obligation under international human rights law, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Istanbul Convention.
The anti-corruption policy of Istanbul Gender Museum
Istanbul Gender Museum uses the definition of Transparency International for the museum and the carrying organisation of the museum as anti- corruption rules:
“The offering, promising, giving, accepting or soliciting of money, gifts or other advantage as an inducement to do something that is illegal or a breach of trust in the course of carrying out an organisation’s activities.”
In line with this definition we:
- have zero tolerance to the payment or receiving of bribes directly or indirectly
- have zero tolerance to facilitation payments
- communicate the zero-tolerance policy to all partners
- communicate the zero-tolerance policy to suppliers, contractors and other third parties.
SUPPORTERS
The Istanbul Gender Museum has developed this site with the support of the CultureCIVIC: Culture and Arts Support Program, a European Union project.