After telling you about the Smallest Museum in St. Paul and the Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum “Tiny Museum Week” continues with another micro-museum, this one’s in San Francisco (and may no longer be active…correct me if I’m wrong).
I’m not sure if this is still an active project, but a few of the empty newspaper kiosks of San Francisco were taken over by tiny pop-up museum exhibits a few years ago. When an object no longer serves its original function, then why not find a creative way to readapt it? A collaborative effort between Community Arts International and a number of local organizations, the Kiosk Museum has put on a number of different displays: vintage robots and toys, teapots, banks, masks, game boards, creepy clowns, and San Francisco’s Chinatown. The museums, only visible from the sidewalk and not the street, are like tiny secret cabinets of curiosities. Because I really like it, I’ll leave you with the explanation of the museum’s purpose from its website: “As we wander the city, standing at a bus stop or waiting in line, we invariably look to our mobile devices for distraction. But anywhere one looks–in shop windows, restaurant counters, stacked in the corner of a room–there are aesthetic vignettes to enjoy. The goal of the Kiosk Museum project is to capture and contextualize these moments, creating a museum experience in these repurposed diminutive urban spaces that never close.”
