Nobel Women in Madrid

The opening of the exhibition “Nobel Women” took place at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in September 2017, dedicated to a selection of women awarded the Nobel Prize in its five disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace), as well as its creator, the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.

The exhibition has been created by Rocaviva Eventos in collaboration with the CSIC, the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the embassies of Sweden, Norway, Germany, Chile, the United States, France, Israel, Italy, Kenya and Poland, as well as by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Institute for Women, the Madrid City Council, the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Distance Education, the Catholic University of Valencia, the Stockholm Nobel Museum, the Oslo Nobel Institute, The Gabriela Mistral Foundation New York, The Chile-Spain Foundation and The Women for Africa Foundation.

The winners selected for the exhibition were:

> Physics

            Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Physics 1903, Chemistry, 1911)

> Chemistry

            Irène Joliot-Curie (Chemistry, 1935)

            Ada Yonath (Chemistry, 2009)

> Physiology or Medicine

            Rita Levi-Montalcini (Medicine, 1986)

            Elizabeth Blackburn (Medicine, 2009)

            Carol Greider (Medicine, 2009)

            May-Britt Moser (Medicine, 2014)

> Literature

            Selma Lagerlöf (Literature, 1909)

            Nelly Sachs (Literature, 1966)

            Gabriela Mistral (Literature, 1945)

> Peace

            Bertha von Suttner (Peace, 1905)

            Teresa de Calcuta (Peace, 1979)

            Wangari Maathai ( Peace, 2008)

            Irena Sendler, almost a Nobel Peace Prize

With the section “Almost a Nobel” dedicated to Spanish writer Concha Espina, which was nominated for the famous award numerous times, the exhibition closed. This was an especially interesting space for the public who generally did not know the personal and professional biography of this distinguished writer. The section had much of unpublished material.

The exhibition, distributed in 5 large rooms, had several showcases that showed different material referring to each one of them (philately, numismatics, books, articles, scientific devices ...). Special attention deserves the assignments made by the foundations of some of the award-winning ones, such as the Marbacka Foundation that yielded material from Selma Lagerlöf, the Stockholm Nobel Museum that loaned pieces from the Nobel banquet, or the Nobel Institute of Oslo, which sent a portrait of Bertha von Suttner.

Thinking of the youngest, several spaces of the prize-winners were recreated: Nelly Sachs' office, Selma Lagerlöf's home, Wangari Maathai's native landscape of Mount Kenya, and Teresa of Calcutta space with a life-size figure.

The opening ceremony was highly relevant. The ambassadors of the countries involved participated, led by the ambassadors of Sweden and Norway - countries that award the Nobel Prize - as well as the director of the Women's Institute, the president of the CSIC, the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation and delegates from the Stockholm Nobel Museum.

The exhibition was complemented by activities on each of the awarded women. Numerous conferences were given by thier descendants or international specialists in their figure and took place at various venues in Madrid (City Hall, Complutense University, Embassy of Sweden, National Library, Institute of Women, Goethe Institute ...) always with great assistance from public. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director of UNESCO, offered the conference “Women Nobel that I knew”. Two acts of special relevance were the dramatized readings, starring the great actor Manuel Galiana, “Pierre and Marie Curie, themselves ”and“ Concha Espina. Light and darkness ”.

The museum organized school workshops and numerous schools and institutes came to visit the exhibition. The curators made many guided visits to groups of various entities.Among the acts that were organized (conferences, concerts, round tables, gastronomic menus ...) it is worth highlighting that of the Royal Botanical Garden, where the act of planting a fig tree in honor of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize 2008 for her defense of the environment. Ambassadors and representatives from numerous countries attended the event.

As a final colophon, the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela, presented the book Mujeres Nobel, written by the exhibition curators, Belén Yuste and Sonnia L. Rivas-Caballero, which includes the life and work of the Women Nobel Prize who are part of the exhibition.

Throughout the exhibition period, there were banners on the streetlights of the most important streets of Madrid dedicated to the Nobel Women who were part of the exhibition.

The exhibition had a great impact in public and media and exceeded 260,000 visits. Among the personalities that visited it were Pierre Joliot and Hélène Langevin-Joliot (grandchildren of Marie Curie), Elizabeth Lagerlöf (niece of Selma Lagerlöf), Manuela Carmena (mayor of Madrid), Aris Fioretos (specialist in Nelly Sachs), Piera Levi-Montalcini (niece of Rita Levi-Montalcini) ...