ABSTRACT
Large mainstream museums traditionally collect and display objects relating to curated histories of the elite, while the lives of ordinary people, are excluded and ignored. How can we disrupt established praxis to celebrate the magic of everyday experience, and re-write, re-present and record? Can new forms of collection, display and participation lead to connection, belonging and reparation? The Museum of Ordinary People (MOOP) was developed by myself and Co-founder Jolie Booth. Our museum practice comprises using everyday objects to make visible narratives of lives that normally would have been erased from history, creating a space for these stories. This chapter gives an introduction to MOOP and explains the model developed to create the museum and collections. It shares examples of MOOP’s powerful emotive exhibits, and explores the nature of our collaborative, facilitatory praxis. Further discussing the results of creating a reparative and accessible space, that reveals how everyday objects create links to memory and build connections. It also considers the challenges of creating a pop-up museum on a small budget, and finishes considering the emerging canon of new-museums utilising the term ‘museum’ as activism - to enact social change.
