Museum of Popular Culture

 

Unfortunately another rather grey day in Seattle and so we 

caught the monorail to the Seattle Centre to visit MoPOP - the museum of Popular Culture.

 

The museum is housed in a very unusual building designed by Frank O. Gehry to evoke the rock n roll experience which is a key part of the museum experience.

 

In the foyer of the museum is a huge floor to ceiling screen showing videos of live bands, lit as if you were attending the concert in person.

 

There was an extraordinary musical instrument sculpture - acoustic and electric guitars, hundreds of them.  It rose several floors within the building.  It was very striking but I couldn't help but think how much my Dad would have hated to see guitars and banjos used in this way.

 

The museum celebrates the life of Jimi Hendrix who was from Seattle as well as the band Nirvana who began their careers locally - we were interested to see that one of their early performances, together with two other local bands, took place at the Moore Theatre where we were last night.  Of course they went on to bigger and better venues all over the world.

 

Other areas of pop culture celebrated within the museum included a very comprehensive Star Trek exhibit which David enjoyed - more pics another day..

 

Another exhibition entitled 'Wow'!, was a touring celebration of 'wearable art' based on an annual competition between designers to create one off pieces that were never intended to be produced as clothing but were wearable.  The different materials and designs in this exhibition were extraordinary and I will share more another day.

 

There was also a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to science fiction films.  Outside the reflection of the Space Needle and the outlines of the building looked fitting for a science fiction exhibit.

 

Later in the day the needle and surrounding trees were all lit up.