Thursday Salute to Originals: The Tiny Museum
If you blink, you may inadvertently walk right past it. But this museum, taking up less than 10 square feet of real estate on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, is making a big impact. The Micro Museum, reportedly the smallest museum in the world at 10” x 16” x 8”, is an art display nestled into a void between buildings – precisely, between a pub and a Subway sandwich shop. Small in stature, the space is raising big issues about the status of museums and local art.
Crowned with a neoclassical façade, the Micro Museum invites sidewalk visitors to peer into the gallery, complete with hardwood floors and LED-powered track lighting. Rotating exhibitions are displayed on the walls, featuring art pieces from New England creators.
When conceiving of the museum concept, founder Judith Klausner sought out to solve a problem with showcasing local artists, stating “there are so few institutions in the area that will show art by New England artists even though there are tons of amazing artists in the area”. Facing limited resources, Klausner limited her thinking to a small scale and from there the Tiny Museum was born.
For the ribbon cutting ceremony, tiny bicycles and miniature parking spaces were situated on the sidewalk, playing into the sense of whimsy. The mayor of Somerville sliced the ribbon with a tiny pair of scissors and delivered the briefest of opening speeches, consisting of merely the words “hello” and “thank you” in the spirit of smallness.
With a penchant for local artists, 24/7 visiting hours, and no barriers to access, the Tiny Museum is flipping the notion of museum on its head. In the wake of MOMA’s planned destruction of the American Folk Art Museum by Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, today we salute the intimacy of museum spaces that humanize the scale of the street, creating “instances of wonder in the urban landscape”.
Sources: The Artery, Fastco Design, Boston.com