For nearly 25 years, Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) has been a pioneer in bringing science fiction, fantasy, horror, rock and roll, hip-hop, comics, and other popular arts into the museum world. Now, under the leadership of new CEO Michelle Smith, MoPOP has expanded its focus to highlight the impact of popular culture on our lives and how it influences culture, politics, and identity. It makes that message clear.
The museum today announced the debut of a new exhibit, “MASSIVEIVE: The Power of Pop Culture,” the first of a larger annual content theme for the museum, scheduled to open on March 15. Featuring approximately 80 artifacts, interactive exhibits, films, and immersive experiences, the exhibit explores concepts around representation, appreciation and appropriation, inspiration and imitation, and the nature of fame and celebrity. It is structured around his five entry points: Activism, World Culture, Preservation, Scholarship, and Accessibility.
Smith, who was appointed CEO in March 2023, is one of the few Black women in museum leadership. She says prominent cultural institutions like MoPOP have an obligation to truly engage and collaborate to tell the stories that matter to diverse communities.
“Our mission is to make creative expression a life-changing force by providing these experiences that inspire and connect our community,” she said. “That is also reflected in the MASSIVE exhibit.”
“We’re a museum that doesn’t always tell you too much about what’s important, because you already know,” said senior curator Jacob McMurray. “MASSIVE exhibitions not only reflect the community, they serve as a platform for the community. It includes guest curator and artist spaces, attracting up-and-coming curators and artists within the community, and providing a platform for them. explore our content and collections and reinterpret it in their own voices.”
MoPOP opened in 2000 in a distinctive Frank Gehry-designed block-shaped facility at the base of the Space Needle in Seattle, and has gone through a series of changes before settling into its current form, always remaining a museum in its own right. It has played an important role. It carefully displays artifacts from the world of music, entertainment and fan culture, and offers attractions focused on large-scale spectacle and high-tech immersive experiences.
For Smith, these are two sides of the same coin, especially as the experience economy continues to rise, temporarily derailed by the pandemic. “I think the role of museums is changing,” she said. “We’re doing storytelling, we’re talking about pop culture as a global language. During the pandemic, when people had nothing to do, they went to Netflix NFLX and watched stories and told stories. , I was listening to a lot of different things. We think of going to museums because they tell us stories about what’s going on in our lives and what’s impacting society. We’re evolving the experience. We’re also trying to change the narrative in that we’re not trying to erase history. We’re celebrating the present and the future, not just what’s happened in the past. We are working hard to ensure that history is told.”
To get to that point, you need to change your mindset. “We are focused on activities right now,” she said. “I’ve never seen a museum that focuses on activism, talks seriously about preservation, and looks at things through a global lens. We’re really trying to understand what’s going on right now, with artists and graffiti and hip-hop. We try to make things relevant by thinking about what’s impacting society or what’s happening in the here and now.”
Smith emphasized the importance of holding space for popular culture at a time when it is so politically contested. “We want everyone to participate, but as you know, they don’t necessarily agree with us. We just want to ignite difficult conversations and dialogue and We just want to light a fire. We don’t have a point of view on it, but when you walk through our space, from where you buy retail products to where you eat food, [at the museum’s diverse, curated concessions area]You’ll begin to see how it’s incorporated into everything we do. ”
“MASSIVE: The Power of Pop Culture,” supported by exhibiting partner KPMG and grants from Seattle Arts and Culture and 4Culture, opens March 15 at the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture.
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