IAWM Election Candidates 2025
IAWM is a strong network with over 60 member-museums worldwide. This year a new board will be elected. Here you can get more information on the candidates.
Elsa Ballauri, Albania
It is with great enthusiasm that I submit my candidacy for the board of the International Association of Women’s Museums (IAWM). This marks the third time I find myself wishing to actively contribute to this inspiring community—not merely as a member, but as a dedicated advocate within its leadership structure.
As a long-time collector and passionate researcher of women’s histories, I had long envisioned the creation of a women’s museum in Albania. That vision became a reality in 2018, when I founded the Women’s Museum in Albania (Muzeu i Gruas – MiG). The museum was born from a deep conviction: that the stories of women—especially those untold, erased, or forgotten—must be preserved, shared, and honored. Only by reclaiming these narratives can we strengthen our path toward gender justice and equality.
MiG is the first initiative of its kind in Albania. Our mission is to illuminate the rich and complex experiences of Albanian women throughout history, serving as a space for memory, reflection, and empowerment. We are committed to connecting this local mission with broader international dialogues, and for that reason, we are working toward becoming an active part of the IAWM network. In addition, we have initiated a regional collaboration in the Balkans, which we hope will grow into a sustainable, cross-border partnership.
IAWM represents not only a network of museums but a vibrant and visionary community. In previous engagements with its members, I have felt a profound sense of inspiration and solidarity. I remain eager to contribute more directly by joining the board—bringing with me my regional perspective, experience in cultural organizing, and unwavering dedication to women’s rights and social transformation.
I remain energized by the possibility of doing more—through new ideas, inclusive strategies, and collective effort—for women in each of our countries. I truly believe in the power of this network to shape change, and I would be honored to serve its mission as a board member.blish MiG – The Women’s Museum in Albania in 2018.
Kyehyeong Ki, Korea
Biography
As a historian, I teach gender history at SNU, while also working to spread women’s history and raise public awareness. Since 2013, I have participated in the movement to establish the National Women’s History Museum, served as the Secretary General and Standing Representative of the NGO History-Women-Future (2015-2017), and served as the Director of the National Women’s History Exhibition Hall (2018-2019). I founded Gender Museum Korea as a new alternative space in 2020. With a deep awareness of women’s grassroots democracy and autonomy and I am conducting creative museum experiments based on exhibitions at Gender Museum Korea, to seek solutions to this problem.
Museum
Establishing a women’s museum. It is a long-term project to remember and commemorate women’s history based on a museum. As a living witness to the process of establishing a women’s museum in Korea, I am proud to have participated in the process with many courageous and energetic women. I believe that every woman is a great women’s museum, and I pursue a platform for women’s culture, a space for experiencing gender equality awareness, a space for global solidarity on gender issues, and a dynamic museum that moves like a nomad.
Why am I working at IAWM
I grew up with IAWM. At first, I knocked on the door of the association to find a model for establishing a Korean women’s history museum. Through IAWM, I was able to share the common goals and vision of women’s museums and gained the courage to take a more active role in this endeavor. I have a dream of sharing the agendas of local women’s museums on a global level and finding solutions together.
Martha Ortiz Sotres, Mexico
With great enthusiasm, I submit my candidacy to join the Board of Directors of the International Association of Women’s Museums (IAWM), motivated by a strong commitment to strengthening visibility and collaboration among women’s museums at the international level.
My work at the Museo de la Mujer has allowed me to witness firsthand the transformative impact of these spaces as platforms for memory, education, and social change. Building on this experience, I aspire to actively contribute to the growth of the IAWM. One of my main goals will be to promote the creation of women’s museums in Latin America, as I already collaborate with associations and groups across the region to broaden outreach and connect with new audiences.
I am a Mexican visual artist, a graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with an established national and international career. My work is part of the artistic heritage of various institutions and museums across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, including the National Museum of China. I have represented Mexico in biennials and cultural forums in countries such as China, Italy, Colombia, Argentina, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Monaco, and I have created murals in several Latin American countries. Among my recognitions are the UNAM University Merit Award, First Place in the International “Sport and Olympism” Competition (London 2012), and the Italy Prize for Art in Florence. Additionally, one of my works was acquired by Prince Albert II of Monaco.
My motivation to join the Board stems from my deep interest in advancing the recognition of women’s contributions and work. I am convinced that my artistic experience and commitment to equity can support the mission of the IAWM and help build a more active, diverse, and global network. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to apply and reaffirm my commitment to contributing with dedication and vision to strengthening this valuable community.
Gaby Franger, Germany
I have been a member of the IAWM board since 2016 and its chair since 2023. I would be happy to continue contributing my experience and ideas. Rather than emphasising the differences that divide us in this conflicted world, I want to focus on what unites us: our shared experiences, our determination and our vision for justice. Through dialogue and exchange, we can challenge the structures that sustain inequality and foreground our stories as a foundation for gender justice, inclusion and peace.
As a human rights activist, community worker with migrant women and families, and researcher of women’s lives under persecution and oppression, I understand museum work and our network’s mission to be rooted in women's own visions of their lives, aspirations, and capabilities. I am deeply concerned about how women's and gender museums can support, amplify and transform women's claims.
I envisage our network as a platform for cross-cultural dialogue, where curators, researchers, academics and activists from various backgrounds can converge to share our challenges. I am convinced that women’s museums and our network play a vital role in raising the profile of women and their abilities at all levels of society. We highlight women’s achievements and shine a light on their often overlooked contributions, and we show how women confront regional and global conflicts, acts of injustice and discrimination.
I am a retired German professor of international social work with a strong connection to Latin America, where I have lived and conducted projects in various countries. I am a founding member of Women in One World, which has run the Museum Women's Cultures Regional – International in Fürth since 2006, that has been a member of IAWM since the first meeting in Merano in 2008. My current research fields are: Resistance through narrative textile art; regional women's history; and migration.
Mona Holm, Norway
I am passionate about my work and about creating change for equity. I have been fortunate and able to dedicate my professional time to women’s history and gender issues at the Women’s Museum of Norway for more than two decades. Currently I am a Ph.D. fellow in History at the University of Oslo (where I explore trans-national feminism c. 1880–1920), but I will go back to my position at the Women’s Museum in 2026 after finishing the Ph.D.
I have been a dedicated member of our network since our first meeting in Merano in 2008. As a women’s museum professional, I have experienced the importance of having support of our IAWM community. Our association still needs to find ways to grow stronger and develop according to the needs and resources of the members. I would like to contribute to the board for a new term and help provide continuity in the management and thus make developments of other activities easier. Even without much financial power, IAWM can play an important role. I believe that providing mutual support, fora for discussions, and interchange of ideas and solutions, will help us all come closer to our goals for our individual museums and for a more gender equal future.
Born: 1965.
Nationality: Norwegian.
University degree: Cand. Phil. in History of Art.
Work experience: Curator at various museums/cultural institutions, and since 1999 at the Women’s Museum of Norway. Co-founder of IAWM in 2012, and since then member of IAWM’s executive board where I have served as the vice chairwoman in 2012–2016, chairwoman in 2016–2022, and vice chairwoman again in 2022–2025.
Stefania Pitscheider Soraperra, Austria
I have been working at the Frauenmuseum Hittisau – Austria’s only museum dedicated to women’s history and culture – for seventeen years, with commitment, joy and deep conviction. I believe that culture is inseparably linked to the human condition. Only by critically engaging with the past can we understand the present – and take responsibility for shaping the future.
The Women’s Museum Hittisau addresses pressing issues of our time – such as care, fast fashion, ecology, peace and justice – through a gender-conscious and inclusive lens. Our work is guided by the values of inclusion, participation and intersectionality, and shaped by the experiences and perspectives of people of all genders.
We are a living, dialogical space in a rural Alpine setting – a place for encounter, friction and socio-political debate. Over the years, the museum has become a widely recognized best-practice example of feminist cultural work in a non-urban context. The museum has received multiple awards, including the Austrian Federal Museum Award in 2017 and the Special Commendation at the EMYA / European Museum of the Year Award 2021.
I am deeply familiar with both the large museum landscape and the independent cultural scene. As a current member of the IAWM board, I would like to continue my work and contribute my curatorial, museological and socio-political expertise. I also see potential synergies with my parallel role as a board member of ICOM Austria.
I am an Italian art historian and museologist living in Austria, and a member of the Rhaeto-Romanic minority in the Dolomites. I have worked at institutions including Kunsthalle Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Shedhalle St. Pölten and Coopérations in Luxembourg. As part of the artist group WochenKlausur, I contributed to socio-political art projects in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Kosovo – including a presentation at the Venice Biennale.
The IAWM Board Election will be conducted digitally and will not be open to the public.
Discussions will take place both in person and online, while voting itself will happen exclusively online. Each voting museum will receive one unique access code.