We have lost many, many things in all fields of science, creation and even navigation because of the invisibility of women and their creations in history in general and in the history of art in particular. This year, seven museums in the city and the metropolitan area recover, thanks to a series of stories, the memory of seven women with whom they are related and present them to us. Do you want to know who this woman is? They explain it to you in Petites històries, grans dones, one of the many initiatives with which the museums and art spaces of the city celebrate the 8-M.

The most famous initiative, however, is the one we are talking about, which has brought together a series of museums dedicated to different subjects that have followed the same guide in order to prepare a different activity for each one: they have sought out women related to the area covered by the museum and who have made important contributions, made invisible because they are women, and they bring back the story, explained to the public by a storyteller.

Thus, at the Barcelona Maritime Museum, we were introduced a few days ago to Judith Mas, a sailor and adventurer who in 2010 began a nine-year maritime voyage around the world. On her return, she founded, along with other companies, the Sea Wolves collective, which fights to eliminate the gender gap in nautical sports. But the cycle also includes the figures of archaeologists such as Enriqueta Pons i Brun (Archaeology Museum), artists such as Helena Vinent (9 March, at the Joan Miró Foundation) and the illustrator Pilarín Bayés (16 March; Museum of the History of Catalonia).

You will also learn, in the form of a tale, the story of people such as Montserrat Pedreira, who is the director of the Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of Manresa and who was the ideologist of the space and the educational model of the Niu de Ciència del Museu de Ciències Naturals (17 March), or, at the Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport, the young Catalan skateboarder Daniela Terol (23 March). Remember to check the websites of each of the museums to register for the activities, all of which are free of charge. 

In addition to this joint proposal, however, many museums and art centres in the city are celebrating International Women’s Day this month. In Born, for example, throughout March they are celebrating a festival with free guided tours about Women in 1700 (every Sunday afternoon; the tour lasts thirty minutes; ask at the ticket office), a tour during which they will tell you about the women who lived there centuries ago and the stories of sorority they played the leading role in. At the same venue, on 23 March, as part of the cycle 365 women a year, which showcases women who have been silenced by history, the playwright Núria Vizcarro presents a new play directed by Mercè Vila Godoy (it will be staged in collaboration with the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya) about Marina Ginestà i Coloma, a Catalan journalist, writer and anti-feixist activist.

At the DHub (or at the El Clot-Josep Benet Library, which is part of it), they will talk about the designer and artist Sonia Delaunay, whom you probably (unfairly) still don’t know (11 March). And in other museums in Barcelona, such as the Frederic Marès Museum, they are celebrating Women’s Day with music. They offer the concert Francesca Bonnemaison, “Jo soc la dona de les labors” (17 March; 5 €; Sala Femenina) which pays tribute to this educator and defender of women’s rights, but also to the composer María Rodrigo (1888-1967).

And how do you celebrate the day at the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya? Well, with the day Despertant la Dama de la Muntanya (8 March), a day of lectures and academic presentations on the human remains of a woman and children over 5,000 years old, found in 2004 in Pallars Jussà. Admission is free, so if you are interested in the subject, they are waiting for you. At the same museum, on Saturday, the 9th, they offer a guided tour included in the ticket price (please note, reservations are required). It is El 50% absent, which alludes to those aspects of archaeological research or those readings of history in which the role of women has been ignored or reduced.

On 16 and 17 March, the Auditori Botigues de la Generalitat of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona is hosting the conference organised in collaboration with the Lobas de Mar association and the Barcelona Capital Nàutica Foundation, Dones que trenquen ones, la Copa Amèrica com a somni. There (admission is free) you will meet some sailors who will explain their trajectories, the experiences they have had and the challenges they face.

If you come to the Museu de Ciències Naturals, remember that until 1 April you can see “Essential. Les treballadors del Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona 1917-1987“, dedicated to the women who worked at the centre from more than a century ago until the end of the Transition. On Saturday, 9 March, there is a family activity programmed, Memòria violeta, which has a lot to do with this exhibition.

The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, for its part, is organising, in addition to the family activities of the cycle Petites històries, grans dones, the guided tours Dones havíeu de ser (17 March; registration is required on the museum’s website) on the way in which art has treated the female figure.

Before the month of March is over, and if you haven’t already done so, remember to visit the current exhibition at CaixaForum, as it features women as the protagonists. It is the exhibition “Revered and feared. Feminine power in art and beliefs” which, until 16 June, shows how women, demons, saints and other spiritual beings have played a special role in our vision of the world.

If you want to celebrate International Women’s Day? come to Barcelona’s museums, but first check their websites to find out the full programme of each centre.