Radical Stroud and Pop-up Museums
I suppose we ought to start this piece with our own working-definition of a Pop-up Museum: ‘a temporary exhibition carefully curated, but with changing displays created by visitors with a widening circle of participants: a sort of curated happening but with serendipitous happenstance: an inclusive community show and tell with artefacts and memories and texts and photos and artwork.
We have created such museums in pubs and art spaces and churches before – Rodborough Church, The Prince Albert, Stroud Valley Arts, the Gloucestershire Regimental Museum in Gloucester. We hope to create further pop-up museums in the future: a further Railway Pop-Up Museum (hopefully at the railway station or again at SVA or The Prince Albert) and a series of Stroud community pop-ups (again at SVA or The Prince Albert or in a church or at a closed-down shop or even in the streets).
The possible benefits are obvious: attracting people who wouldn’t normally visit museums might be one. Encouraging people (including some who wouldn’t normally feel that they had anything important to say) to speak in public in a group, or one-to-one with a ‘curator’, could be another. Encouraging people to visit ‘proper’ museums in Stroud, Gloucester, Cirencester, Cheltenham, Bristol and Bath etc. could be another. Revitalising closed-down shops might be another.
But let’s leave our area now; indeed, let’s leave the country, via some perceptive observations from Nora Grant in the USA: ‘Pop Up Museums: Participant-Created Ephemeral Exhibitions’:
‘The term “pop-up” has become an international buzzword used to describe ephemeral, experimental projects—from pop-up restaurants to pop-up boutiques—but a pop-up museum is still puzzling: how can you take something as substantial and precious as a museum and add a pop-up twist? What happens when you do?
At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), we host “pop up museums” (we do not hyphenate the name) that are both ephemeral and mobile; however, content comes from participants rather than museum staff or museum collections. Part exhibition, part program, part story-potluck, our pop up museums offer a hybrid experience that allow us to facilitate conversations around community issues and personal stories.
How does this work? Imagine a potluck in which, instead of a dish, everyone brings an object and/or story to share with others. We collaborate with community partners and choose the pop up museum’s theme and venue together. We then invite people to bring something on-topic to share … Our primary goal for pop up museums is to bring people together in conversation through stories, art, history, and objects …but by calling it a “museum” the project encourages people to rethink museum spaces and experiences. The Name “Museum” Sparks Confusion—But Also Meaningful Conversations.’
‘During the event, one participant commented, “People were willing to talk about what they made, how and why. And it can be loud, unlike museums. I think of museums as . . . you can’t touch anything, you can’t be noisy. It’s nice how you can touch anything. It was casual, but official-feeling at the same time.” This participant’s comment suggests a discomfort with museum spaces and with the inability to touch exhibited content. The pop up museum offers a hands-on experience in which people can touch the objects and speak directly with the exhibitor. We all have interesting things, but people rarely share them with strangers or display them in a museum context. Calling it a “pop up exhibition” or a “pop up show” would describe the physical structure, but it wouldn’t ignite as much conversation about the conceptual space of a museum. We want the project to activate museum space both physically and conceptually.’
‘The pop up museum is a fill-in-the-blanks space that prioritizes conversation over objects. Call it relational aesthetics, potluck, exhibition, museum, or non-museum—its changeability is its charm. Our primary goal for pop up museums is to bring people together in conversation through stories, art, history, and objects.’
I suppose, too, that pop-up museums could be, in a way, virtual and on-line. We have been collecting family stories here at Radical Stroud with ‘A People’s History A Miscellany of History A Textual Weaving of a Cabinet of Curiosities A Textual Sampler’ – we have been adding chapters over the last couple of years and when complete, we shall put in all online in one continuous post. This incremental story-telling has involved the local history society and the community at large. It is a model, perhaps, for future engagement in the locality on different themes. (We have also posted on how to create your own museum and how to create tongue in cheek ludic ‘counter-heritage’ events: see links at the end.)
But it’s time now for a bit of on the other handery, courtesy of Eben Diskin and the USA again (2021): ‘It’s Time to Stop Using the Word “Museum” to Describe Pop-Up Museums’:
Eben enjoys ‘mindless family excursions as much as anyone else, but pop-up museums are more than just benign diversions – they’re a symbol of the growing culture … where people think of themselves as the main character in their own movie. Now that’s metastasizing from social media to our cultural and intellectual institutions… As a highly efficient vehicle for vanity and self-aggrandizement, social media has been the primary catalyst of “me” culture … Pop-up museums are an extension of this … to offer museum-esque experiences without the learning or cultural value. They capitalize on our vanity and shrinking attention spans to tempt people away from museums with actual cultural significance. They contribute to the anti-intellectualization of culture.’
Well, I don’t disagree with some of that. And I don’t agree with some of that too. But it’s good to be mindful of such a polemic to keep us on our toes. But I finish this section with another trip to America as a judgment on the above: “It Ain’t Necessarily So”.
Now to conclude: we started off with our definition of the pop-up museum; but what definition of museum should we use? Here is the International Council of Museums 2022 definition: ‘A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.’
We look forward to contributing further to that ethos in our own idiosyncratic pop-up manner, so as to build upon our successes and achievements outlined in the second paragraph. We have the experience and expertise to take this further on the GWR, in Stroud, the county or region. We have developed a model that others can use and would be more than willing to talk about the nuts and bolts of our pop-up practice so as to spread the word.
https://radicalstroud.co.uk/you-dont-have-to-be-rich-or-famous-to/
https://radicalstroud.co.uk/making-your-own-museum-guerrilla/
STOP PRESS!
Making pop-ups in the moment to catch the mood: I have created two over the last couple of days to catch the attention of passers-by as they walk past our front garden. One was for the Mexico v England football match involving an England shirt, a football, a pair of old football boots, two pieces of Stroud scarlet cloth, and a poem about the historic links between Stroud scarlet cloth and Mexico (the cochineal beetle). There will be a performance of the poem at the local pub showing the match in the early hours, with the possibility of further group performance in the event of an England victory.
The other pop-up involves two collages created to mark the 250th anniversary of the USA. These will be co-created with my colleague Katie McCue and displayed in the front garden of my house. It will also feature on social media, as has the football creation.