Smástundarsafnið literally translates as A-little-while-museum, it is our adaption of the term Pop-Up-Museum. The idea comes from an American museologist, Nina Simone. A pop-up-museum does not have a permanent location, nor a permanent collection, but rather – as the name suggests – pops up momentarily and invites it’s guests to bring objects to it’s collection, tell and document its story and then bring it back home. Each Smástundarsafnið-event has a different theme, and the objects and location take their form built on this theme… or vice versa, that the location inspires the theme.
The Pop-up-Museum has been well received. Apart from great attendance form the general public and positive feedback from our visitors, The Settlement Exhibition in Reykjavík invited us to take part in their Museum Night program and we were at the Design Museum in Garðabær on the Icelandic Museum Day in 2013. Smástundarsanið was featured in an interview on Rás 1, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, as well as in local newspapers Fréttablaðið and Morgunblaðið. Smástundarsafnið received funding from ICOM – The International Council of Museums, The University of Iceland, The Museum of Design and Applied Art and Reykjavík City Museum.
Smástundarsafnið is a collaboration with Edda Björnsdóttir, museologist, and Karina Hanney Marrero, creative project manager and art-theorist. This is an ongoing project, but on hold due to our geographical distances.
Image credit : Karina Hanney Marrero
Jóhanna Björk 