Meanwhile the “real museums” are struggling to pay the bills. The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield is auctioning off 13 artworks, including classics by American painter Norman Rockwell, to meet their $55m debt. La Salle University in Philadelphia is also selling 46 artworks to raise roughly $10m, which will go towards funding new teaching initiatives.
Artnet critic Ben Davis has warned that the new pop-up museums are contrived to feed our vanity. “It is an attraction that quite literally aspires to be the visual equivalent of junk food,” he writes. “It is a very, very serious force to be reckoned with, rivaling the popularity of actual museums in any city it lands in.”
While going to museums is supposed to be fun – as well as educational – are pop-up, photo-op museums the new Disneyland of the art world? “We see an opportunity to add new layers of playfulness to the current art, food and learning experience,” said Kareem Rahma, founder of the Museum of Pizza. “We love how the experiential aspects of a children’s science museum and the zany fun quality of Pee Wee’s Playhouse makes learning fun.”
The Museum of Pizza aims to balance Instagram selfies with the history of pizza. “Our visitors will learn more about their relationship with food, pizza, art and walk away with some really great memories and photos,” said Rahma. “People want to learn and take selfies so we’re creating an opportunity to do both simultaneously.”
As museums adapt to suit a younger generation, it’s not always seen as the answer. “We’ve noticed more iPads and museums apps, but we think it only keeps younger people staring at their phones instead of experiencing the museum itself,” said Rahma. “We feel the gap between looking at art on screen and looking at art on a wall has closed. Artists are great at creating experiences and we think museums are catching on.”
A similar approach to photo-friendly “art” is taken in a pop-up called the Egg House, which celebrates the egg. Set in the heart of Manhattan, the exhibition features giant eggs, an oversized egg carton and an egg pool with palm trees.
“It aims to provide a quick getaway from the daily life through a fantasized theme-house,” said Biubiu Xu, founder of the Egg House, which runs until 27 June. “People have the need to immerse themselves in another refreshing and inspiring environment; the Egg House allows them to do that.”
Xu helped stage the exhibition with the smartphone in mind, proving that museums are changing in the face of social media.
“Now, the focus is not only on pleasing the visitors but the lens,” said Xu. “We think it’s not necessarily a bad or superficial thing – cameras are better vehicles for communicating things for a shorter attention span, which is the case for the current generation.”
The Museum of Ice Cream in New York. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
However, with the rise of selfie-driven museums, the “wow factor” has to be over the top, as the stakes are higher for a digital savvy audience. “The younger generation is definitely harder to please,” said Xu. “They’ve seen everything, so more interactive experiences for all senses is necessary – that means, visual installations, more foods, sounds and even smells.”
But this selfie-driven pop-up is not the place to learn about the history of eggs, it’s not even a thoughtful take on agriculture in America, never mind the controversy around animal cruelty and free-range or ethical eggs.
“The Egg House is more of a funhouse rather than an exhibit,” said Xu. “The experience aims at providing a fantasy space where guests can play or interact and enjoy themselves; it’s not an educational space.”
A more traditionally food-centric offering, the Pizza Hut Museum, recently opened in Kansas and honors the half-century-old restaurant chain, yet hasn’t made the same splash on social media. At the same time, selfie museums, like the sold-out Color Factory in San Francisco, which features a confetti room, rainbow-hued photo-ops has garnered more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
But these new museums may have to evolve to acquire staying power. They may be on the rise, but the most Instagrammed museum in America remains the Metropolitan Museum of Art followed by the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Maybe it isn’t about the photo, after all? “White box museums forbid you to touch the art, which for me personally inspired the burning desire to touch all the art!” said Rahma. “We’re like the second-coming of the interactive science museum – we’re a fully immersive space with many different experiences, all in one.”
