Micromuseums

You’re bored and you're waiting - you’re in a health clinic reception or a bus depot. You spot something you’ve never seen before. You peek through its tiny windows at an alien world: creatures with a hundred eyes made of stone, animals with no heads, and animals that spend most of their energy making slime.

You’ve stumbled upon the world of the mollusk, the animal group that runs from garden snails to giant squid. The details of this world appear to have sprung from the mind of a genius sci-fi writer, but they are real - details you will continue to discover as you observe city snails after a rain or calamari on your plate.

The Smallest Mollusk Museum is the first of the Micromuseums - an effort to bring captivating dollhouse sized museums to places where people’s time is typically wasted. Micromuseums show visitors how to unearth new questions on familiar topics. Eventually we may have a fleet, exploring such topics as the science behind tickles (Vol.2) or dust (Vol.3).

Science is more than just a barrage of facts. It’s a template for how to be curious - how to look at something, ask a million questions, and then try to find answers. Micromuseums is an attempt to share the curious, answer-seeking, scientific way of thinking with non-scientists.

Everyone should have access to engaging educational experiences, but NYC’s biggest museums are clustered in concentrated cultural zones. Micromuseums, starting with the Smallest Mollusk Museum, inverts this model. We come to you. The museums will travel on month long residencies around the five boroughs, and pay special attention to underfunded school districts and outer boroughs far from Museum Mile. They will be free of charge.

Funded by Awesome Without Borders (June 2016)