Open Forum

Are Museums and POP Culture Exhibits a Good Match?

I am the Curator of the Chewing Gum Chronicles POP Culture Exhibit.  The exhibit explores the history of gum one piece at a time from Topps to Wrigley and includes the world's largest collection of gum and memorabilia.  Visit www.chewinggumchronicles.com

Finding an appropriate institution to book the exhibit has been challenging and frustrating.  Being the experts in your field - could you share with me your thoughts on POP Culture exhibits and its relativity to todays museums and visitors?  What can I do to make the exhibit more attractive to Exhibit Directors?  I welcome your ideas regarding media strategy, public relations, and correspondence that will get attention.  I promise to chew on each suggestion.  Thanks!.    

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Terri Meier
Curator
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Hi Terri,

I think Museums and Pop Culture are a great match!  I was involved with two very successful pop culture exhibits - one as an educator, and one as a Project Director/Co-curator.  It sounds as if you developed the exhibit independently and are shopping it around to museums.  Both of the ones I worked with/on were born from the museum.  If you haven't tried already, find ties within the exhibit content and a local history museum or historical society's mission/collections.  The museum can justify the exhibit that way, and perhaps incorporate some of their own story and/or artifacts into the exhibit. Both the exhibits I worked with/on had local connections and that made them really successful with the public - one was on Teenage NJ (we included music, dance, car culture, school, etc) and one was on Rock & Roll in NJ (from the 40s - today) - both were in NJ venues so the historical connections were clear.

 Is the exhibit flexible - i.e. is there a way to scale it down for museums with smaller gallery spaces?  That could make it more marketable (and affordable).

 What are you including in your price?  Are there educational materials already developed?  How hard/easy it it to install? 

Did you try local libraries?  I don't know what size your exhibit is or any of the specifications, but I know quite a few libraries that have exhibit spaces and they are sometimes looking for exhibits to fill them.

 You might consider looking at how traveling exhibitions market their shows and take some cues from there. 

Good luck!

Claudia

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Claudia Ocello
President & CEO
Museum Partners Consulting
Morristown NJ
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