In 2014, the Musée du Louvre held a lecture series, entitled Women artists at the museum? Current perspectives. Building on this line of thought, the present symposium moves beyond acknowledging the underrepresentation of women artists in permanent collections: through a combination of theoretical approaches and real-world case studies, this symposium aims to explore the epistemological shift that must occur for women artists to take their rightful place in museum collections.

Museums play a key role in society as spaces of knowledge and, by extension, of power. By rendering objects visible and inscribing them within cultural narratives, museums contribute to creating dominant frameworks and, through them, collective imaginaries. Scholarship in art history,  museology and, in particular, gender studies, challenges the existing hierarchies among artists, artworks and techniques, and critically examines the conditions under which artists trained and worked. This feminist approach, which also draws on postcolonial theory, is driving change in museum practices. By focusing on the permanent collections of historical art, an area still less studied from this angle than temporary exhibitions and modern or contemporary collections, this symposium will explore museum initiatives that generate new ways of seeing and understanding. Many historical art museums have launched research programmes, experimented with innovative display strategies, and developed  new narratives and modes of transmission.

Such work challenges evaluation criteria grounded in the established canon and pushes back on the enduring myths and misconceptions that continue to shape art history. This naturally gives rise to pressing questions: Can gender studies play a role in fundamentally reconfiguring museums? Does a radical approach necessarily lose its force when articulated within an institutional setting? What initiatives of this kind, both past and present, have already been carried out, and with what outcomes?

Organised jointly by the non-profit organisation AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions and the Musée du Louvre Museum Studies and Research Support Department, this international symposium will bring together curators, academics and artists working at the intersection of art history, museology and gender studies, to harness the transformative potential that this interdisciplinary space holds for building the museums of tomorrow.