Women’s Business/Business Women
How can museums address the blind spots in centuries of historiography regarding the historical role of women? In 2025, the Plantin-Moretus Museum sought to redress this imbalance by foregrounding nine generations of women who helped to shape both the museum’s building and the printing business. The project resulted in a temporary exhibition that was very well received by the public. But our aims are more ambitious. We intend to permanently correct what we see as museological myopia, starting with an updated presentation of our collection, opening in late 2026.
The principal sources for these revised narratives are the family and business archives preserved in situ. In illuminating the lives of sisters, mothers, maids, and businesswomen, the project employed a diverse array of media and interpretive tools and – crucially — invited new voices into the curatorial process. One year later, we ask: What have we learned from Women’s Business / Businesswomen? How can our research findings further inspire curatorial practices?

Véronique Van de Kerckhof

Museum Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet, Musea Antwerpen, Antwerp
Véronique Van de Kerckhof has been a CODART member since 2002. She has worked in various roles at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, M Leuven, and in Antwerp at the Rubenshuis, the Rubenianum and the Museum Mayer van den Bergh. She is currently Head of Collections and Curator of the Historic House collections at the Museum Plantin-Moretus. Among the exhibitions she curated are The Painter and the Surveyor: Imagining Brussels and the former Duchy of Brabant (2000) and Wonderlycke dieren op papier in de tijd van Plantin (2007).