Herself is an exhibition that showcases the work of female artists dating from 1820 to 2020. It celebrates the range of art by women as well as participates in a global conversation about the diversity of artists represented in museums. The art includes a variety of mediums such as textiles, photography, painting, video, ceramics, jewellery, furniture and everything in between.

Some of the artists highlighted are Bea Maddock, Margaret Stones and Lola Greeno, but they are included alongside Dorothy Stoner, Valma Tiffin and Theresa Walker. Recent acquisitions of art created by Pat Brassington, Julia Davis and Julie Gough also feature.

QVMAG senior curator for visual art and design Ashleigh Whatling said she had been developing the show for a couple of years, taking stock of what the gallery had in its collection. She wanted the exhibition to be a part of global conversations about representation in museums - not just women versus men but diversity too.

"Museums are often established and developed when places are starting to figure out their identity and who they are, and often that happens during colonial times. A lot of institutional collections can get really bogged down in that narrative and so it's a really good time to start unpacking that and figuring out we definitely have [some] narratives down pat but also some that are missing," Ms Whatling said.

She said the initial reason she started developing the show was because she looked at how the gallery could supplement the collection to best reflect who Tasmanians were. However, a lot of research was required first to understand the context the collection was built in, and what actually existed in the current collection of works.

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"Luckily for me, COVID was actually an enormous blessing to give me the time to do that research. I spent a lot of lockdown reading about female art history in Tasmania, and researching what works in our collection represented that."

The senior curator said once lockdown ended and she was able to access the collections, she had a list of artists whom she had researched that she wanted to make sure were included in the exhibition. She felt the artists chosen would tell the stories of the last 200 years.

Ms Whatling said many collections were finding they did not have a great representation of female artists, but for the most part QVMAG did. However, she did identify gaps in the QVMAG collection and made acquisitions where needed to fill those gaps as best as possible.

"I didn't want to loan any works from other collections. I really wanted to show what we have here," she said. "I really wanted to show, not only to the community that we are committed to sharing the stories of our female artists, but we are committed to continuing to acquire them, and round out those stories more."

"There are still a lot of stories that we can tell, still gaps in the narratives of stories that we don't have represented in the collection, but in terms of just looking at women artists, it was wonderful."

In the exhibition, Ms Whatling said they had about 130 works on show by 100 different female artists. She wanted those who were visiting Tasmania to be able to see who the town was and its identity, but she also wanted those who lived in Tasmania to be able to see their own stories reflected back at them.

"I certainly think there is room for growth for us to continue to find other works that are more inclusive and reflective of this amazing community we live in, which is actually very diverse," she said. "As much as there's so many stories represented here, and so many artists, there's so many more [not on display]."

One of the gaps in the exhibition includes art by Aboriginal artists, with the work in the visual and design collection only going back to the early 1990s for them.

"That's really when institutions started recognising Tasmanian Aboriginal contemporary art as culture that is contemporary," Ms Whatling said.

She said because many institutions are ethnographic, works of art from 20 years ago often ended up in history collections instead of art collections. Many of the pieces are also in collections around the world instead of here in Australia.

"Collections in general are kind of a colonial concept. Often material culture from 200 years ago, Aboriginal communities want to have that in their hands," Ms Whatling said. "So that's a conversation for museums to have with specific communities to get to a place where everybody feels their work is being respected and cared for."

However, to combat the absence of Aboriginal artwork in the earlier period of the exhibition, Ms Whatling tried to use contemporary works that spoke to the absence through documenting history or moments in time.

Ms Whatling said the exhibit became very chronological in nature during the conceptual stage, especially because each generation of female artists taught the next.

"Each generation of female artists, teach and create social and political movements that create space for the next generation. It was beautiful to see. There was this real lineage of teaching."

Herself will be on display until February 13, 2022.

Those who have already seen Herself may wish to revisit it down the track as there will be some pieces that are removed and replaced with others - due to the delicate nature of some of the materials used in the artworks.

"It's a very tricky line to walk as a curator, because I want to be able to share stories, I want people to look at a work and enjoy it, but also I want to be able to make sure it's cared for and remains in the collection in perpetuity. So that in 200 years time, a curator can come in and do a show that has 400 years of practice," Ms Whatling said.

The works have a schedule of swap-overs so that any piece that may be delicate isn't out in the light for too long. However, deciding on the items that would be exhibited in the first place was not always easy for Ms Whatling.

"I suppose with an exhibition like this, I'm focused on telling stories, and the artworks being beautiful or to my taste are kind of incidental," she said. "If it's a work I'm not particularly fond of, it doesn't matter because it serves the purpose of telling a moment in female art history."

For the senior curator, many of her favourite works in the show leant towards her own personal taste of contemporary art, but she did have hopes on what others would take from the exhibition.

"I hope they see stories that spark ideas in them. I hope that they understand that women have been working in this field and supporting each other in this field for hundreds of years. And I also hope as well, there is some opportunity for reflection on what stories we don't always tell and what stories we could tell better," she said.

"I hope people enjoy the works because they are stunning and there is such a wide diversity and variety of media and eras here. I would say is quite rare for QVMAG to have 200 years of artistic practice on display in one exhibition."

In conjunction with International Women's Day on March 8, a guided tour and theatre workshop have been created to explore Herself. The event is $15 for general admission and $10 for friends of QVMAG. The workshop will be held March 13 from 10.30am until 12.30pm. Tickets can be purchased through eventbrite.