It's a Curated Group of Potato Chip Bags

June 19, 2013 10:51 AM

World's Smallest Museum Finds the Wonder in Everyday Objects "Tucked away in a lower Manhattan back alley, the freight-elevator-sized, generically named Museum is one of New York City’s newest curiosities. While it’s only open 16 hours a week, during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, the museum’s contents are viewable 24/7, lit and sealed by glass doors."

Hat tip to Jason Kottke for this find.

posted by xingcat (9 comments total)

Calgary has a tiny closet-sized (3' x 5') gallery on a main shopping/pedestrian street. It's had several names over the years, and I think the last was Sugar Cube Gallery, until they were evicted for showing some "offensive" nude art. It's currently vacant AFAIK.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 11:27 AM on June 19, 2013 [1 favorite]

Fascinating article. I like this especially:

We’re trying to remind people to see the inspiration or the absurdity or the beauty in the everyday, and to be able to see it when you walk to work. Or when you go to the deli, the way someone has displayed sodas in the refrigerator can be meaningful and beautiful. After all, somebody spent time and energy to think of a considerate way to display those sodas, the same way somebody thought about, “How do we display the Queen’s jewels?”

Also, I'll see your museum and I'll raise you The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things.
posted by gauche at 11:28 AM on June 19, 2013 [2 favorites]

Back in Renaissance times, people got their names into history for such collections. E.g. the Hermetic Art of Memory. and Guillio Camillo's Theatre of Memory.

The art of memory can now be done in much less space ... but for some reason people still prefer the tangible.
posted by Twang at 12:16 PM on June 19, 2013

I appreciate the fact that the museum owners didn't use the word curation (or its variatons) once.
posted by KMB at 12:36 PM on June 19, 2013

I have weird shit at my house, want to come see it?
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:53 PM on June 19, 2013

Oh cool. One of the founders is Tibor and Maira Kalman's son. I love both of their work. This also explains the funding from the Spade family, as Maira Kalman and Kate Spade collaborated on many items.
posted by bibliogrrl at 5:32 PM on June 19, 2013

What a great idea - strange collections and strange sudden art juxtapositions in unexpected places.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:41 PM on June 19, 2013

And I love that it's always there, 24/7, just facing out onto an alley.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:43 PM on June 19, 2013

I was thinking about starting a version of the world's smallest art gallery with a microscope and few slides with funny captions, but it didn't quite work out.
posted by ovvl at 7:38 PM on June 19, 2013