Pop-up Museum...

Today our typography lesson was rescheduled, and we where asked to attend a new pop-up museum, created by the group STRETCH; which has appeared in the Merrion Centre Leeds, the museum is located inside an old women's clothing store which is near the end of the centre, and if I'm honest, is in a pretty decent place, for a good passing trade, even though it's in possibly the worst shopping centre in Leeds.

The opening was about 10 minutes prior to when I arrived, hence why there was a large interest in the venue. At first I thought that it looked very cramped, and that there was not enough content, but as I walked around, there turned out to be a little more than meets the eye, granted, not that much more.

The store seemed to be more in a planning stage rather than a final project, I and others where actually quite disappointed with the layout and the content, as there really is not very much there, and most of the contents of the glass cases, appeared to be things that you would find on a Christmas market stall, or Hawkins Bizarre.

However there was at least one good activity in the venue, the fact that visitors where actively encouraged to decorate the home made letters which made up the sign, this was a fun and interacting activity, and I found it very playful, and just altogether fun, however it did not seem to have much to do with the theme or concept at hand, and that is the one flaw I would say about this activity.

To conclude, I would say that the museum needs to have more original content, It seemed to be showing things that most of us had seen before, or objects which would be found on a tacky stall; The signs that where labelling and describing the contents, also seemed very amateur, printed onto plain A4 paper and simply placed in the cabinets, I feel that this could have easily been made to look more professional, simply by mounting the information onto the glass, or maybe small stands; instead of being something which simply filled a blank space, which it obviously was there just to do.

Overall this has given me, and others lessons, in mostly what not to do during our own up-and-coming exhibition; However has also taught me, to add encouragement, by getting people involved in the work, as I felt I had actually achieved something by attending the exhibition because of the activity. The pop-up museum is a fantastic concept, which could be a thriving place, with just a little tweaking, here and there. I wish them good luck with the next exhibitions...