Great museums can be transformative. They can teach us about the past, ground us in the present, and drive us to shape the future. The most successful museum experiences and stories pique our curiosity, evoke deep feelings, induce empathy, create lasting memories, make learning fun, and change us in significant ways. In fact, as museum experience designers, we chose our tag line for The Experience Alchemists with that in mind…Creation. Magic. Transformation.
This morning, I was reminded of a personal museum experience that had a pretty dramatic effect on my life. I recently started making my way through back episodes of an excellent podcast called Making the Museum. It is hosted by Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner of C&G Partners. The guest on the April 30, 2024 episode was Michele Y. Smith, CEO of the Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP) in Seattle. The museum was founded by Microsoft legend Paul Allen in 2000 and was called Experience Music Project (EMP) when it opened, but later changed names to reflect its focus on all pop culture, not just music. It is on the must visit list when traveling to Seattle.
Frank Gehry designed the building to look like a melting Jimi Hendrix guitar. Hendrix grew up in Seattle and the museum has a collection of guitars, clothing, and ephemera once owned by Hendrix or related to his life. In fact, one of the main topics of the podcast was “How a guitar can teach civil rights.” His entire career spanned the civil rights era and the museum uses one of his guitars to engage visitors in a discussion about civil rights.
I have my own Museum of Pop Culture guitar story. I was in town for the 2012 Museum Computer Network Conference, which I attended annually for almost 20 years, and visited the museum the day I arrived. First of all, I was incredibly impressed with the museum on my first visit. I remember a towering sculpture of guitars, an incredible 60 x 33 foot Barco C7 LED display paired with an impressive sound system and killer acoustics, and so many cool interactive moments. The experience even included a sound lab with instruments that visitors could play and recording studios they could use to rehearse and record songs.
The museum hosted a reception on the first night of the conference. During the reception I spent some time taking a deeper dive into the interactives. As I approached the musical instrument area, I saw my friend Dave Patten, former Head of New Media at the Science Museum (London), walk up to the guitar display and start wailing away on it. I stayed back and watched and said to myself “I wish I could do that.”
While I loved music, I never learned to play an instrument. No one on either side of my immediate family played and the public schools I attended did not have an active music program. I just never had the opportunity to play. Around this time, my now almost 15 year old daughter was 2.5 years old and I distinctly remember thinking that I would absolutely make sure that she had every opportunity to learn to play an instrument if she was interested. Then something hit me. If she had an example…if she saw someone playing regularly, she might be more inspired to play. I thought about it for a little while and came to the conclusion that this would be my midlife crisis! When I got home, I was going to buy a guitar and learn to play. Later in the conference I surprised Dave by thanking him for inspiring me to play guitar. He had no idea what I was talking about, but loved it when I told him the story.
As with every purchase, I did a bunch of research to find the right guitar and a few weeks later I was on my way. I wanted to make an investment in a decent instrument, but I had also read that 90% of people who buy a guitar quit within the first year. I bought a lesson plan for beginners and cursed my way through a few months of painful callus building, but I was hooked pretty quickly and I have been at it ever since. Within a few years I wrote a few songs and I regularly played almost every night. Since then I have had the good fortune of working on two incredible exhibitions that featured guitars and music. I even got a chance to nervously strum the oldest Martin guitar in existence!
Fast forward 12 years and I like to think that my decision helped influence my daughter’s life as well. She took up trombone in middle school and now plays in the high school jazz band as the only female first year student. She has already hinted at wanting to continue playing through college! I can’t wait to take her to MOPOP to see what she thinks!
