Summer Exhibition Inspiration

Every year those of us in the cultural tourism industry wonder about what will draw an audience for the summer, thereby giving us another reprieve from closure for another year.

Startling recent exhibitions such as the V&A's 'Disobedient Objects' and the British Museum's 'Germany: memories of a nation' put objects are front and centre to reveal powerful stories. The scale of these exhibitions may be a little beyond the resources of the Museum of Unreason. Lacking money, objects and specialist knowledge has never held us back before but what I lack at the moment is inspiration. I need something different, something cheap and something unreasonable? Which museums could potentially inspire us?


Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, USA
https://plus.google.com/110249973969381621124/about?gl=uk&hl=en

Going to see the Alamo? Then afterwards make an appointment with a museum created by a retired plumber who is even older than me. Folk art on toilet seats? A possible crowd curation summer exhibition awaits here at Unreason.


Maguro Parasitological Museum, Japan http://www.kiseichu.org/Pages/english.aspx

In the words of the museum advertising,

'Try to think about parasites without a feeling of fear,

and take the time to learn about their wonderful world of the Parasites.'

Who wouldn't be on the first plane to the far east to explore this museum? Short of a changing the Museum of Unreason's Collection Policy I fear we may be short of enough items for us to display a similar exhibition.


Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (now part of the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul) http://www.museumofquackery.com/

I love the web address http://www.museumofquackery.com/ of the virtual tour. The honesty of the collection is very appealing. Let's put on display loads of useless objects, highlighting the ignorance and folly of humanity. The Museum of Unreason has many, many useless objects - exhibition possibilities are beginning to form in my mind.

Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum, Fort Mitchell, KY, USA venthavenmuseum.com
'A must for those who employ the use of dummies'. Something we can all relate to perhaps. A cutting social commentary exhibition for the summer?


The Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA http://muttermuseum.org/

For the truly weird you can't go far wrong with medical museums and exhibitions. The Mutter Museum is a vast collection of medical abnormalities (I wonder what it's contemporary collecting policy looks like). I'm afraid my new ethically approach to exhibitions prevents me from sticking horns on cat skeletons any more. The same problem also applies to the...

The Icelandic Phallological Museum, Reykjavik, www.phallus.is

Who wouldn't want to get their hands on a penis shaped bottle opener from the shop - perhaps not suitable for our core family audience.


More promising is the....

Museum of Bad Art, various sites in Boston, MA, USA http://www.museumofbadart.org/

How many of you have bad art in your collection? This has real possibilities as a way of curating our art collection. Next week's plan of action is to get into the stores and find the real rubbish that will never see the light of day and brings into question the sanity of previous curators' collection decisions. What will be the narrative thread? 'Bad Art: images of Unreason' possibly. Or 'Unreason Objects: memories of place'

Summer is sorted. Book your tickets now!