Pop-Up Museum Blueprint

By Michelle DelCarlo http://popupmuseum.blogspot.com @PopUpMuseum

Pop-up museums are community events where people share a personal object, based on a theme. The mission is to create conversation between people of all ages and walks of life. Here are five steps to help you create your own pop-up museum.

Choose a date, time, and location

Recommendations Work with your community to see if it makes sense for you to travel to them or for them to come to you. The space you choose should feel intimate and be relatively quiet to allow for speaking voices to be heard. Saturdays, from 1-3PM, have worked well. Talk with your community to see what will work best. Roughly two hours is recommended.

Questions to Ask Where will the pop-up be? Is the space conducive to conversation? What day and time will the pop-up be? How long will it last?

Choose a theme
Recommendations Look for established audiences in your community who would be receptive, or that you already have relationships with. Talk to them to see if they would find it useful or appropriate. Having a non-collaborative pop-up works well too. If collaborating with a specific audience, ask them. If not, brainstorm what would be relevant and generate engagement. Tying a pop-up to a current exhibit or symposium theme is a good way to highlight ideas youre presenting and create engagement.

Questions to Ask Are we collaborating with a specific community?

What is relevant to our audience? What will help us amplify our current offerings?

Prepare for the pop-up

Recommendations Word of mouth and social media work well. Music should be good for mood, such as jazz, classical guitar, or Fleet Foxes. Light snacks and drinks should be available. There should be enough table top space for all participants to display their object and label. Tables should be close enough that participants have to rub elbows. 3 x 5 cards and multi-colored pens work well. Chairs should be placed in clusters around the room so people can sit and talk.

Questions to Ask Have we advertised? Do we have music and refreshments? Do we have tables where objects can be placed?

Do we have paper and writing utensils for labels? Do we have places where people can sit?

Pop-Up Museum Blueprint

By Michelle DelCarlo http://popupmuseum.blogspot.com @PopUpMuseum

Implement the pop-up

Recommendations Task someone to facilitate conversation in case of lulls. This person should love talking with people of all walks of life. It is good to keep track of progress, so evaluation is recommended. Station someone near the label writing area to explain what to do. If its new to people, it can be confusing. Have the facilitator mingle with everyone to make sure there is a healthy amount of conversation. Keep the atmosphere very casual and unstructured. Allow for organic connections.

Questions to Ask Who will facilitate? Are we performing evaluation? Do participants know what to do? Are people comfortable?

Follow-up
Recommendations Hooray! Celebrate your success. Keep a record of what was successful and plan to replicate what worked for you. Not everything will be perfect at first. Change things that didnt work well and talk with your community to see how you can improve. Failure is a good thing it means youre learning.

Questions to Ask What worked well? What didnt work well?

Inspiration
{What if we could hold an idea before us, exploring its meaning among other people and other minds?} David Carr, Open Conversations {What we seek is a certain kind and quality of talk: talk that yields knowledge and understanding.} Rike Burnham & Elliott Kai-Kee, Teaching in the Art Museum {We are more alike, my friends, / Than we are unalike.} Maya Angelou, Human Family Theme Ideas Handmade Culture Home Untold Stories Adoption Thanksgiving Death