Along with our new name and brand has come a rethinking of our spaces. The question: how to physically translate the premise that we’re not a museum of objects, but a museum of ideas? The ‘translation’ or makeover is now well underway, kicked off by the completion of our new MOV Studio in May (pictured left), and now progressing gradually on many fronts.
It’s a long project. The end is years away.
In many ways, the process has become the plan (a Vancouver idiom, if ever there was one). We’re actively researching and drawing inspiration from our visitors, our members, and from some of the most creative spaces around the world.
We’re not the only museum in transformation. The Tate Modern in London is also in the midst of a major overhaul. Click here for details. The scale of their project is vastly different from ours, but the goal is the same: better engage diverse audiences and offer an equally diverse range of learning tools and experiences.
One of the online features they’ve created around this project is a Mood Board, where people can upload images of inspirational spaces they’d like to see incorporated, in some way, shape, or form, into The Tate’s redesign. The 289 photos on the board so far, include cool way-finding signage from an unknown street, unusual lighting in a Tokyo restaurant, and a pile of leaves in Montpelier. It all makes for a compelling portal into urban life; some of it brilliant, some of it surreal, some of it useless, all of it really fun to click through.
Our former gift shop space is now a construction site and, come October, it will become the MOV Junior Studio. (A ‘before’ shot is pictured left.) We see this studio as a place where kids and their families will learn about Vancouver through activities like book readings, performance, and craft and history workshops—to name just a few. When it opens, it’ll feature objects from our teaching collection (like vintage toys and clothes), and the objects from our Pioneer Vancouver program. Those items will occupy about one-third of the space. The rest will be a blank canvas, shaped by our youngest visitors in the weeks and months and years to come.
Image credits: Rosemary Poole
