Australian art museum sued over Ladies Lounge exhibit

Kirsha Kaechele Ladies Lounge court hearing. Photo: Mona/Charlotte Vignau. Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

It was only in 1965 that women won the right to drink in Australia’s bars. This exhibit - which contains some of the museum's most-acclaimed works - was designed as a piece of interactive art, intended to provide a safe place for women to enjoy each other's company, while also highlighting the exclusion they faced for decades.

A man sued, arguing it breaches the state's Anti-Discrimination Act. The museum agrees the exhibit does indeed discriminate. But it argued that Mr Lau hasn't missed out on anything - he experienced the artwork exactly as intended.

A tribunal ruled that the museum must stop turning men away from its women-only Ladies Lounge installation, defeating its purpose.

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