Australian museum ordered to allow men into women-only art exhibit after man sues

Court finds women-only restriction ‘discriminatory’ in nature

Creator of ‘Ladies Lounge’ Kirsha Kaechele at the Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Screengrab/ The Project)

A court in Australia has ordered Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) to allow entry to men into a women-only art exhibition following a legal battle.

The Tasmanian civil and administrative tribunal on Tuesday found the museum to be in violation of the state's anti-discriminatory law and ordered Mona to allow "persons who do not identify as ladies" to enter the exhibition.

The order comes after a New South Wales man took legal action against the museum after being denied entry into the "Ladies Lounge" during his visit last April.

Inside the lounge, women are served champagne by male butlers while they have a private view of the displayed artworks by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Sidney Nolan.

The space was inaugurated in 2020 – based on the concept of misogynistic old-fashioned Australian pubs – where women were largely excluded till the 1960s.

The lounge's ladies-only restriction was challenged by Jason Lau, who argued that the museum had violated the anti-discrimination laws by failing to provide “a fair provision of goods and services in line with the law” to men.

The museum claimed that the sense of exclusion towards men was the idea behind the installation and held their ground.

Kirsha Kaechele, the artist behind the installation, told Guardian Australia last month that she was “absolutely delighted” that the museum was taken to court.

“The men are experiencing Ladies Lounge, their experience of rejection is the artwork,” she said.

Ms Kaechele said the lounge was “a response to the lived experience of women forbidden from entering certain spaces throughout history” and promoted equal opportunity.

The petitioner said the promotion was "vague" and “lacking context”. He argued that denying men access to some of the museum's important works was discriminatory.

Mona’s lawyer Catherine Scott last month claimed that the lounge was covered under 26 of Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which allows "discrimination in any programme, plan, or arrangement designed to promote equal opportunity for disadvantaged people".

Judge Richard Grueber rejected Mona's arguments and ordered the museum to start admitting men within the next 28 days.

Mr Grueber stated that women generally experience some “broad societal disadvantage” and “women artists as a group experience disadvantage in respect to display of artworks”.

But blocking men from the lounge could not be deemed an achieved improvement, he said.

“The relevant opportunity that the Ladies Lounge is intended to promote to achieve equality is not readily apparent from Ladies Lounge itself, in the way that, say, a gender-based scholarship or a quota system for the appointment of women to particular positions or a women-only medical clinic might self-evidently point to purposes of addressing systemic gender-based inequality of opportunity in education, employment or access to medical services," he wrote, according to News.com.au.

“Mr Lau is male. As he does not identify as a lady, he was refused entry to the Ladies Lounge. He had paid the full entry price for Mona but was not able to experience the artwork contained within the Ladies Lounge. The refusal to permit Mr Lau entry to the Ladies Lounge was direct discrimination,” Mr Grueber added.