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Museum of Pop Culture

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File:Monorail in EMP.jpg
Monorail tracks going through the MoPOP building

The Museum of Pop Culture (or MoPOP) is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organized dozens of exhibits, 17 of which have toured across the U.S. and internationally.

The museumTemplate:Emdashformerly known as Experience Music Project, Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (or EMP|SFM), and later EMP Museum until November 2016—has initiated many public programs including "Sound Off!", an annual 21-and-under battle-of-the-bands that supports the all-ages scene; and "Pop Conference", an annual gathering of academics, critics, musicians, and music buffs.

MoPOP, in collaboration with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), presents the Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival which takes place every winter. Since 2007, the MoPop celebrates recording artists with the Founders Award for their noteworthy contributions.

Exhibits and activities

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File:Night Exterior EMP.jpg
Nighttime view of MoPOP
File:Guitar Art at the EMP.jpg
Guitar sculpture at MoPOP

MoPOP is home to numerous exhibits and interactive activity stations as well as sound sculpture and various educational resources:

  • A Template:Convert building, designed by Frank O. Gehry, housing several galleries and the Sky Church, which features a Barco C7 black package LED screen, one of the largest indoor LED screens in the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Exhibits covering pop culture, from the art of fantasy, horror cinema, and video games to science fiction literature and costumes from screen and stage.
  • Interactive activities are included in galleries like Sound Lab and On Stage where visitors can explore hands-on the tools of rock and roll through instruments, and perform music before a virtual audience.
  • IF VI WAS IX, a guitar sculpture consisting of more than 500 musical instruments and 30 computers conceived by British exhibit designer Neal Potter and developed by sound sculptor Trimpin.<ref>Template:Cite web During 1997 Neal worked alongside Frank Gehry Architects and the EMP curatorial team to establish a masterplan for the attraction. The detail design was undertaken locally. Originally called "The Collision Sculpture", the point of collision of different genres of music to create rock and roll. A living electronic sculpture as relevant today as it might have been in 1955</ref><ref>Template:Cite web More than 500 musical instruments and 30 computers were used to create IF VI WAS IX. Created by Seattle-based sound sculptor, Trimpin, IF VI WAS IX is equipped with earphones that allow audiences to tune into the various musical permutations performed.</ref>
  • The world's largest collection of artifacts, hand-written lyrics, personal instruments, and original photographs celebrating the music and history of Seattle musician Jimi Hendrix and the band Nirvana.
  • Educational resources including MoPOP's Curriculum Connections in-museum workshops and outreach programs; STAR (Student Training in Artistic Reach); Creativity Camps for Kids; Teen Artist Workshops; Write Out of This World, an annual sci-fi and fantasy short story contest for 3rd to 12th graders; and the Hip-Hop Artist Residency.
  • Public programs such as MoPOP's Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival, Pop Conference, the Youth Advisory Board (YAB), and Sound Off!, the Pacific Northwest's premier battle-of-the-bands.

MoPOP was also the location of the first NIME workshop's concert and demo program. This subsequently became the annual International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, a venue for research on music technology.

Science Fiction Museum

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The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame was founded by Paul Allen and his sister Jody Patton, and opened to the public on June 18, 2004. It incorporated the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame which had been established in 1996. The museum was divided into several galleries with themes such as "Homeworld", "Fantastic Voyages", "Brave New Worlds", and "Them!", each displaying related memorabilia (movie props, first editions, costumes, and models) in large display cases, posters, and interactive displays. It was said about the museum that "From robots to jet packs to space suits and ray guns, it's all here."<ref name=NYT>"Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame". Travel Guides: Seattle. The New York Times. July 7, 2009. Archived July 7, 2009. Retrieved 2013-04-27. Footer: "Content Provided by Frommer's Unlimited. Excerpted from Frommer's Seattle 2009.</ref>

Members of the museum's advisory board included Steven Spielberg, Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, and George Lucas. Among its collection of artifacts were Captain Kirk's command chair from Star Trek, the B9 robot from Lost in Space, the Death Star model from Star Wars, the T-800 Terminator and one of the domes from the film Silent Running. Although the Science Fiction Museum as a permanent collection was de-installed in March 2011, a new exhibit named Icons of Science Fiction opened as a replacement in June 2012.<ref name=kareiva/><ref name=CBS/> At this time the new Hall of Fame display was unveiled and the class of 2012 inducted.<ref name=sfhof2012/><ref name=sfhof-new/>

Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF) at the University of Kansas (KU). The chairmen were Keith Stokes (1996–2001) and Robin Wayne Bailey (2002–2004). Only writers and editors were eligible for recognition and four were inducted annually, two deceased and two living. Each class of four was announced at Kansas City's annual science fiction convention, ConQuesT, and inducted at the Campbell Conference hosted by CSSF.<ref name=sfhof-old/><ref name=sfhof-CSSF/>

The Hall of Fame stopped inducting fantasy writers after 2004, when it became part of the Science Fiction Museum affiliated with the Museum of Pop Culture, under the name "Science Fiction Hall of Fame". Having inducted 36 writers in nine years, the organization began to recognize non-literary media in 2005.<ref name=sfhof-old/> It retained the quota of four new members and thus reduced the annual number of writers. The 2005 and 2006 press releases placed new members in "Literature", "Art", "Film, Television and Media", and "Open" categories, one for each category.<ref name=sfhof2005/><ref name=sfhof2006/> In 2007 and 2008, the fourth inductee was placed in one of the three substantial categories.<ref name=sfhof2007/><ref name=sfhof2008/>

MoPOP de-installed the Science Fiction Museum in March 2011. When the "Icons of Science Fiction" exhibition opened in June 2012, a new Hall of Fame display was unveiled and the class of 2012 was inducted.<ref name=kareiva/><ref name=CBS/><ref name=sfhof2012/>

Nominations are submitted by the public, but the selections are made by "award-winning science fiction authors, artists, editors, publishers, and film professionals".<ref name=SFFhof-new/>

MoPOP restored the original name online during June 2013 and announced five new members, one daily, beginning June 17, 2013. The first four were cited largely or wholly for science fiction works, however the final one was J.R.R. Tolkien, who was "hailed as the father of modern fantasy literature".<ref name=SFFhof2013/>

Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inductions

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Sources:<ref name="sfhof-old" /><ref name=sfadb/>

"Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame". [June 17 to 21, 2013]. EMP Museum (empmuseum.org). Archived June 23, 2013. Retrieved 2014-07-21.</ref>

"Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame" Template:Webarchive. EMP Museum (empmuseum.org). Retrieved June 27, 2014.</ref>

20th anniversary

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In 2016, the Hall of Fame's 20th anniversary year, the scope was changed again to include not only creators, but creations (from such genres as Cinema, Television and Games), with two examples. A total of 20 additional inductees in both categories were also announced:<ref name=TheEncyclopediaofScienceFiction>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Locus" />

The class of 2023 brought the number of members to 109, which includes the 20 additional inductees added in 2016.

In November 2016, the museum changed its name from the Experience Music Project Museum to the Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP for short.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Architecture

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Template:Multiple image MoPOP is located on the campus of Seattle Center, adjacent to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building. The structure itself was designed by Frank Gehry and resembles many of his firm's other works in its sheet-metal construction, such as Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Gehry Tower. Much of the building material is exposed in the building's interior. The building contains Template:Convert, with a Template:Convert footprint. The name of the museum's central Sky Church pays homage to Jimi Hendrix. A concert venue capable of holding up to 800 guests, the last structural steel beam to be put in place bears the signatures of all construction workers who were on site on the day it was erected. Hoffman Construction Company of Portland, Oregon, was the general contractor, while Magnusson Klemencic Associates of Seattle were the structural engineers for the project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Aerial view of EMPSFM.jpg
Design by Frank Gehry

Even before groundbreaking, the Seattle Weekly said the design could refer to "the often quoted comparison to a smashed electric guitar." Gehry himself had in fact made the comparison: "We started collecting pictures of Stratocasters, bringing in guitar bodies, drawing on those shapes in developing our ideas."<ref name=downey>Downey, Roger (February 18, 1998). "Experience This!". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved October 22, 2006. Template:Webarchive</ref> The architecture was greeted by Seattle residents with a mixture of acclaim for Gehry and derision for this particular edifice. British-born, Seattle-based writer Jonathan Raban remarked that "Frank Gehry has created some wonderful buildings, like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but his Seattle effort, the Experience Music Project, is not one of them."<ref name=Raban>Template:Cite news</ref> New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described it as "something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over, and died".<ref name=Barnett>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Forbes magazine called it one of the world's 10 ugliest buildings.<ref name=Barnett/> Others describe it as a "blob"<ref name=cheek>Template:Cite news</ref> or call it "The Hemorrhoids".<ref name=Raban/> Despite some critical reviews of the structure, the building has been called "a fitting backdrop for the world's largest collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia."<ref name="fodor">"Experience Music Project Review""Experience Music Project Review". Seattle. Fodor's Travel Guides (fodors.com). Archived 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2013-04-27. </ref> The building's exterior, which features a fusion of textures and colors including gold, silver, deep red, blue and a "shimmering purple haze",<ref name=enlow>Enlow, Clair (July 12, 2000). "Frank Gehry Rock Temple". Architecture Week 9.</ref> has been declared "an apt representation of the American rock experience."<ref name="skelton">Skelton, Lauren (2008). "EMP: Experience Music Project". Seattle.net. Archived 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2013-04-27. </ref>

Finances

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The museum has had mixed financial success.<ref name=cook>Cook, John (January 8, 2002). "Recent layoffs at local companies: Experience Music Project"Template:Dead link. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved October 22, 2006. Template:Dead link</ref><ref name=AP>Associated Press (March 22, 2005). "Experience Music Project still struggling five years later". USA Today. Retrieved October 22, 2006.</ref> In an effort to raise more funds, museum organizers used Allen's extensive art collection to create a 2006 exhibit at the museum entitled DoubleTake: From Monet to Lichtenstein.<ref name=farr>Farr, Sheila (November 29, 2005). "Paul Allen's Experience Art Project" Template:Webarchive. Seattle Times. Retrieved October 22, 2006.</ref> The exhibit included Roy Lichtenstein's The Kiss (1962), Pierre-Auguste Renoir's The Reader (1877), Vincent van Gogh's Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom (1888), Pablo Picasso's Four Bathers (1921) and several works of art from Claude Monet including one of the Water Lilies paintings (1919) and The Mula Palace (1908).<ref>"Full List of Works Announced for Upcoming DoubleTake: From Monet to Lichtenstein Exhibition". Press release. March 21, 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
. Press releases 2005/2006 (directory). Archived 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2013-04-27. Template:Cite web</ref> Since then the museum has organized numerous exhibitions focused more specifically on popular culture, such as Sound and Vision: Artists Tell Their Stories, which opened February 28, 2007. This brought together both music and science fiction in a single exhibit, and drew on the museum's extensive collection of oral history recordings.<ref name=oral/> The museum's recent exhibitions have ranged from horror cinema, video games, and black leather jackets to fantasy film and literature.

Founders Award

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Since 2007, the Museum of Pop Culture's Founders Award has celebrated artists whose "noteworthy contributions continue to nurture the next generation of risk-takers". The annual benefit gala is key in funding the museum's educational programs, community engagement, and exhibitions.<ref name="founders award">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the gala had to be cancelled and for the first time ever, the event was made free to the public, streaming online on December 1, 2020, as MoPOP honored Seattle's own Alice in Chains.<ref name="aic">Template:Cite web</ref> The benefit streaming raised more than $600,000 for MoPOP in its first night. A compilation featuring highlights from the tribute was made available for streaming on Amazon Music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Recipients

See also

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References

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