New York’s Smallest Museum

Hey my fellow art enthusiast,

If you are tired of the traditional setting of museums, here is something new that will cause you to reexamine the institutional nature of current museums.

This unique 60 square feet museum called Museum (yes, the name of the museum is Museum) located in an ex-elevator shaft that fits only three people at a time is focused on the sentimentality we have towards objects and their own unique stories. Museum shed light on the significance of framing objects when it comes to art.

One star of Museum is the shoe that was thrown at George W. Bus in 2008! Although the founder’s response to how they obtained the item was “We are not allowed to publicly disclose how we came into possession of the shoe,”

Museum’s name is a mockery of the self-importance of other museums, a criticism on the shift of focus away from art that is happening all over.

However, Museum’s founders emphasized that Museum is not art, and I completely support the idea behind that statement. There are many items that are significant to our culture and society, but they are and should not be labeled art. However, they still have significance in their existence and there should be something that celebrates the back story of every object.

If I recall correctly, we had a discussion earlier this semester about what dictates whether or not an object is considered as art (since that is all a painting (or vase, or any other tangible creation) is, an object, before they are called art). Museum gets to the fundamental core of that discussion, sometimes it is the framing of the object and the history of certain objects that makes it art or even the irrelevance of setting and back story that constitute what makes an item art (a relevant movie is the Red Violin, which I strongly recommend).

In this consumerist society of ours, objects an easily be replaced, however, one thing that money can’t buy is the sentimentality that we attach to frivolous objects. Museum focuses exactly on that, the significant role objects play in our lives.

However, Museum is open only on weekends, and because of the founder’s busy schedule with other projects, it is often not open. So for those of you interested in paying a visit, here is their site-

http://mmuseumm.com/

and here is a New York Times article on the museum-

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/nyregion/museum-all-60-square-feet-of-it-celebrates-the-eccentric.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0