Event
Reframing the Muse
An exhibition examining the evolving role of the female body in art, exploring how it has been used to convey stories of desire, identity and power.
Monday 13 January 2025 - Friday 28 March 2025
This exhibition examines the evolving role of the female body as a subject in art, exploring how it has been used to convey stories of desire, identity and power. Across time and cultures, the female form has been both celebrated and constrained, serving as a canvas for societal ideals, cultural tensions and personal expression.
Reframing the Muse questions traditional portrayals that often reduce women to objects of beauty or morality, while also highlighting works where women reclaim their bodies as tools for self-representation and defiance. Through themes of performance, identity and cultural appropriation, the exhibition uncovers the complexities of how the female body has been represented, interpreted and reimagined.
The exhibition has been curated by museum volunteer Delaney Brown, an art history student at the University of St Andrews.
Open Monday - Friday, 9.30am-7pm (and Saturdays 11am - 4pm until 8 February). Earlier closing times may apply on some weekday evenings - we advise arriving no later than 5pm.
Main image: detail from Portrait of a Lady, attributed to Thomas Hudson, c.1740s
Background image: detail from Spirit of the Future by Rebecca Crompton, 1937
Two events will be held on Wednesday 26 March to accompany the exhibition - a guided tour at 1.15pm and a discussion and drawing workshop at 5.30pm.
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