aSHEville Museum

This museum is a cute little gold mine on Wall Street in the heart of Asheville. As soon as you walk in, you’re in the gift shop which is filled with tons of great local products from hand made jewelry to soaps and lotions to scented candles. Everything has a story supporting a local artisan or a cause (for example their body butter is made by survivors of trafficking), and the products are carefully selected and are high quality. The museum itself is fantastic. It’s small but very well laid out with tons celebrating women. My favorite exhibits were Ami Vitale’s photo journalism on lives of women around the world. She is so talented with beautiful photographs that capture stories so well. I also loved the «Her Nobel Words» exhibit, which highlighted the 16 women who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, great homage to phenomenal women.
Heidi, the owner, is amazing, and she has created a gem in Asheville. This is one of the GO TO spots in Asheville in my humble opinion.

This place is an introduction to feminism for your not so progressive, but trying parents. It’s not a very modern take on feminism. I think it almost seemed like they were content with women having the right to wear pants. The vibrator exhibit was interesting, but also not overly shocking. I enjoyed this museum, but wasn’t totally satisfied!

Great place! Gems is the best! Lost my phone and a few hundred dollars in this store and she found/​returned it to me. Awesome selection of items as well!

I came to Asheville with expectations of visiting the aSHEville museum and I really enjoyed my visit. I felt empowered seeing some of the women who contributed to history & who continue to fight for women’s equality. My favorite area was the room showing «cures» for female hysteria! I left a Gloria Steinem to hang on the clothesline as well. Kudos to Asheville for hosting this very important museum.

My daughter found this museum online and said it was one of her «must do’s» while we were on vacation. I’m so glad she found it. The fact that this museum exists at all is wonderful. The exhibits were great for my young feminists ready to go out and make their mark on the world. The history of hysteria was a hoot… even had items to purchase. lol The gift shop was a delight and we made some purchases. The museum had a suggested donation of $ 5 – 20 per person. The gift shop supports the museum and they have many items made by local women.

Here’s a brief update on the aSHEville (pronounced Ah-​SHE-​ville) Museum on Wall Street on the same side of the street as the climbing wall.
Admission is now by «Required Contribution» of from $ 5 to $ 15 per person — you choose the exact amount. Most of the same exhibits as when the small museum opened are still there.
The majority of exhibits are just photographs and reproductions of ads, with some videos. It’s a good effort, but don’t expect a big-​time museum. The exhibit on vibrators, with displays of mostly vintage vibrators, is the most elaborate. There is a caution sign that this exhibit room has adult material.
The expanded gift shop has interesting books about women, tee shirts, local crafts and other items. You can visit the gift shop without paying for the museum admission, though I’m sure the money goes for a good cause.

How wonderful to have a museum celebrating women and women’s history. I don’t think I’ve seen a museum dedicated to women before. I do hope they grow. The exhibits are very interesting. I liked the vintage advertising exhibit. I wish them success.

I obviously love the idea of this museum and the fact that it exists but it helped that I actually loved the execution. Well done!
I was really happy to see the variety of exhibits. This is a small museum (which is a plus in my book; Asheville is awesome, you need time to hit the Wicked Weed brewery, ya know?) but it covered a lot. There was a local history section, a sex-​related section (history of vibrators), amazing portraits of women in third world countries, a section on the plight of Syrian refugees, a section on sexism in advertising, a photography exhibit on women’s bodies, etc. There were a few interactive exhibits — a really cute one where you wrote what you were thankful for and pinned it on a sewing mannequin («I’m thankful for my awesome road trip with Constance!») plus a photo backdrop where you could dress up like Rosie the Riveter.
It was all educational and enlightening but also fun. The gift shop was pretty awesome though — lots of handmade jewelry.
The suggested admission is $ 5 — $ 15. Highly recommended!

I loved this! It’s small enough to get through in an hour or less and what great information! I really enjoyed my time through here and the woman working was very helpful. She explained we could pay before or after and whatever amount that we felt was right. She suggested 5 – 10 dollars a person so I paid 15 total at the end for 2 of us.

I love this museum! Visited while on vacation from Florida. Such a unique gem! Its so great to see a museum dedicated to her story! My husband and I went together and we both enjoyed!

What a fantastic museum! A MUST for any feminist. Regardless it’s enjoyable for all. We saw a few exhibits in this small space. Women in Advertising which featured some shockingly sexist ads from the earlier part of the 20^th century, Women and Beauty, which features photographs of women’s «not perfect» bodies, Women of Syria, and the History of Hysteria (aka Vibrators). I wish there were more museums like this!

I gotta give this place 5 stars simply for existing. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a museum like this, and women’s history education is so essential right now.
It still seems like they have a lot of open space for exhibits, which will hopefully be filled in the coming months, and the exhibits as is are pretty small. It took me about half an hour to see everything. Still, there’s so much potential and I hope they use it well. The photography exhibit in particular was amazing, I hope they have more like it.
The gift shop has some cute stuff and the café seems cool and is self-​service. They’re also open by suggested donations now through August 15. The café seems really nice too, and it’s self-​service. Overall, definitely worth a visit and hopefully it’ll be even more so given some more time.