-We're going to kick things off with artist, curator
and arts entrepreneur, the man responsible
for Museum of Museums.
Mr. Greg Lundgren.
Hi. -Hi, Nancy.
-It's great to have you here. -Thanks for coming.
-And we're digging this place, man. It is fantastic.
-It's getting closer.
-It’s getting closer.
Now before diving in to Museum of Museums, a.k.a.
Mom, I want to give some context for you,
for our audience
to kind of know
what you're about because you do a lot of things.
So in 1995, you sounded Vital 5 Productions.
-Yes. -Is that correct? Okay.
And that's kind of an umbrella organization for your myriad
of projects. -Yes
-Which include Vito's, which is.
-Vito's is a 1953 Italian restaurant
and jazz club on First Hill. -Yep.
-And rebuilt, renovated ten years ago and.
-You brought back to life.
That's a wonderful place.
So the hideout, which is kind of a groovy
hole in the wall bar.
-Yeah, it turns 15 on March 18th. -Wow.
-So we're excited that it's been around so long.
-Yeah, that's a long time in Seattle!
-And I think we'll be there for another decade at least.
-Excellent.
Uh, Lundgren monuments, glass headstones.
-I do that, too. Yeah. -Interesting.
And you've written a couple of children's
books about death as well.
I’ve written two children's books about death. Yes.
-You cover a lot of ground.
And finally, during the first three
Seattle art fairs, you curated Out of Sight,
which was kind of
a parallel exhibit of work by local artists.
-Yeah, my concern was it's that regional artists were not
getting the exposure that they should and deserve.
And so I kind of took it
upon myself to create a venue for that.
-Greg Lundgren to the rescue. All right.
So clearly, you're no stranger
to taking on very big challenges,
which brings us to Museum of Museums.
Perhaps your biggest project yet.
So I. Seems maybe so.
What was the impetus for MoM?
-I have been banging the drum and trying to start
an art center in Seattle for a very long time. -Mm.
-And for a large portion of that time
I was looking towards our multibillionaires.
I was looking towards people with big money to subsidize
what I think Seattle deserves and needs to improve
and grow our arts ecosystem. -Mhm.
And after a while, and after all the letters
that you write and projects that you start, you either
give up or you design in the art center
that you can afford to do
instead of waiting for the art center
because you can't afford to do. -Yeah.
-So MoM reflects
the art center that I can barely afford to do.
-Just right there.
-Just, yeah, to the dollar. -The name Museum of Museums.
Why that name?
I think that there's a couple of different true
answers to it.
I wish there were just one could be easier. -Yeah.
-But I think that there is a very literal term behind it.
And that Museum of Museums
does give shelter to other smaller museums.
So we are harboring the Shaun Kardinal Art Museum.
We are harboring
the Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art
and MoMoM or Museum of the Museum of Museums (laughter)
and a few other moments throughout the space.
-So the building, like you said, it's um,
it was it's owned still by Swedish Hospital.
What was it before you got it?
-For the last decade, it's been kind of a squatters hotel.
-Mm. -The windows were boarded up.
There was five tons of trash that was left behind
by people who were living in the building.
-Right. -So it was in very rough shape.
-Yeah.
-I think it has a great kind of architectural history,
but the 21st century was not kind to it.
During the the demo.
Was there any point during the process
or how many times did you want to run away screaming?
-I enjoy renovation. -Ah!
-I looked at this building almost like a stray dog
that you found.
You know, it was covered in fleas and hadn't had a bath.
And so, like, that process of renovation
is like taking in something that really deserves
to be cared for and kind of grooming it.
-Yeah. -And so that part felt good.
I think that's
that was like the relationship that you have with
a building is like fixing
all the things that are derelict and miskept.
-Mhm, and bringing it back. -And bringing it back.
-So there's
obviously still work to do, but you're getting close
and soon every corner of MoM is going to be art activated.
So let's get to that.
Just walk us through the space.
-Yeah, I think first off, that MoM is an admission
based model. So we don't sell artwork here.
We sell the experience of curating
mostly noncommercial work.
So there's a lot of different moments.
There's a lot different spaces.
The thing about this building is that
there is like a labyrinth of rooms and hallways.
-Oh yeah. -There's something around every corner.
-Yes. the top floor is called the True Space,
which is designated for immersive installation
and large scale sculpture.
It's 2000 square feet and it's dedicated to doing
really ambitious, involved installations.
-Mhm. -Below that is the Malone Gallery,
which is the same square footage
but designed for more traditional exhibition.
Also three main exhibitions a year.
Across from that is what we call the Lobby,
which contains four main moments.
The Emergence Room,
which is designated
for showcasing art from kids age six to 16.
I think it's very important
to have a conversation about arts education
and you don't create
great adult artists unless you're giving kids
an opportunity and inspiration. -Absolutely.
-We also have the Shaun Kardinal Art Museum there.
We have the Margaret Supperfield Museum there.
We have MoMoM there.
-Which is a bathroom.
-And installations.
-Yes, it seems like a joke, but MoMoM is the Museum
of Museum of Museums.
Or the Museum of MoM, and it showcases artwork
that is made in around or about the museum.
-Oh, gotcha. Okay. -But it's also the bathroom.
-Also the bathroom. Yeah. Yeah.
Double. Double meaning. -Why just leave it a normal bathroom?
-Why, why would you do that? Now, what about the mail?
The mail? -Oh, and then, yes.
I Mail MoM is a mail program
that we're doing
with Robert Zverina and Amy-Ellen F. Trefsger.
They are enamored by the postal box.
That’s right in front of our building. -Uhuh.
-And so they're setting up a mail program.
There's pencils and
postcards that are stamped,
and there's some prompt that might be write a postcard
to Edith, who's having surgery at Swedish Hospital.
-Not necessarily someone they know.
-No, it's mostly to strangers. -Gotcha.
-And that's like people that are incarcerated.
People that that kind of could just.
Could use a friend or use some engagement.
So I'm really excited about that program.
-Oh that’s, that's wonderful.
Now let's go to next next area down.
So next area.
So then there's a few things.
I mean, there's outdoor sculpture.
Yeah. -There's Dylan Neuwirth,
that has a neon sculpture on our Broadway entrance.
And Gracelee Lawrence, who were about to install
a large scale 3D printed sculpture of hers
that's on our Boylston entrance.
There is Nikita Ares who painted our front door.
There's Rick Araluce who created the installation
in the entry on Boylston as well.
-That little box kind of set in. -Little recessed diorama.
-Mhm. -And then as we work our way down,
we go to the first floor, which is where we are now.
-Yep. -And on the south side is our
-Which is where we are. -Where we are now.
The gift shop has some of
the traditional normal things like our MoM swag.
So you can buy a coffee mug or a T-shirt or tote bag,
but it's grounded in this collection of 63 objects.
And these 63 objects are presented on these tables
that are almost like what you'd be in, like a swap meet.
Yeah.
And the common denominator between all 63 objects
is that they're all designed
to bring joy to somebody who is staying in the hospital.
-I love that.
So that's the gift shop.
And then behind us.
-Behind us is the talk show.
And it's probably a longer story than we have time for.
But the idea is, is that
I was afraid that I wouldn't be able
to get enough volunteers to manage the gift shop
because to start with, it's going to be a volunteer
based operation.
So I thought that
if we could do something that people might raise
their hand to participate in,
that we'd have a better chance of having it staffed. (Laughter)
So we created what's called the gift shop talk show,
and if you are a gift shop
attendant, you're also a talk show host.
And we worked with our new recent friend, Hunter Irving,
who is doing our first video installation here
to rig up a computer that with a press of a button,
we could stream live on Instagram, Facebook
and YouTube.
This whole project is build the stage
and just kind of see who (indistinguishable). -See what happens.
So now let's go.
Over here is the theater.
-So, so yes,
to the north of the gift shop is the Charles Mudede Theater,
which is, this kind of brings me a lot of joy.
It's a four seat theater. (Laughter)
It's largely designed for video projections.
But I do love the idea of doing live theater
for a four person audience. -That’s great.
-And then beyond that is what's called the Kitchen.
-Mhm. -The Kitchen has its own
entrance to Broadway
and is really designed to have different
programing every day of the week.
And then on the weekends we do art pop ups. -Mhm.
-And that ranges from vintage clothing to fine
art to kind of all different kinds of things.
-How about the cabin?
-Yeah, we created a little like
a little scene of a cabin,
kind of like your uncle's cabin in the North Cascades. -Oh, yeah.
-And it's just this cozy little place that seats eight.
And then behind it, we program this video
that looks like the-
-Nature! -of the
cabin.
-Yeah. -And it doesn't have to be
nature, but it could be outer space.
It could be underwater. -Sure.
(Unintelligible) kind of set some stage. Set some tone.
I think, that tell all sorts of strange submissions for that.
-And then there-the two bathrooms.
-So there's two large bathrooms on the first floor
and it would have been impossible to ignore them
or to leave them alone is just natural
normal bathrooms. -Of course.
-So they are
rotating art installations and then between them
is a mirror
that also changes every six months.
-Okay, so that those three things
right there change every six months.
Well, you know what drives you
to put so much time, energy and resources
into incredibly cool projects but daunting projects?
-I'm just a huge
supporter and a huge advocate of what Seattle could become.
I feel like we have all of these ingredients here.
We have the community, we have the artists.
We have enormous wealth.
We have the technology.
Like there's so many things that other cities don't have.
But it's frustrating
because we haven't combined them in a way
that activates it the way that we could be.
-Mhm. -So I think that Mom is this experiment
and this attempt to
to harness all of those those things.
I'm not saying that it's a sure thing or guarantee.
-Nothing is.
But if I were to propose what part of the remedy would be,
I think it would look a lot like MoM.
-Well, I love it.
And I'm just going to say it.
I love you. -Well, I love you.
Everything you do. I absolutely love it.
So Museum of Museums, MoM is slated to open June fourth.
Keep up with all things
MoM on their website and on Instagram.
Thank you so much.
And stay with us because I know
we have more to do with you later in the show.
But up next is a story on Neon Saltwater,
a visionary artist whose work will be featured in
one of MoM's debut exhibit, which is called Energy Drink.
Thank you, sir.
-Thank you.
-Let’s toast. -Let’s toast.
-Voila, to MoM.
-To MoM. -To Greg.
-Drinking our fake-
-There's nothing in this glass.