Dear friends,
When a young person visits the Museum of Pop Culture and sees Grandmaster Flash’s original turntables for the very first time, they are immediately reminded of the way the music makes them feel. They also learn how creative expression is a life-changing force, whether it’s music or filmmaking or game design.
That’s the power of pop culture.
In the mid-1990s, when we were developing the museum, we knew hip-hop needed to be part of it. The museum’s curators spent a lot of time connecting with hip-hop’s founding artists across the country and preserving the materials that would later form the heart of our 1,300+ artifact hip-hop collection.
It’s YOUR support of MoPOP that helps us preserve and share this pop culture history with worldwide fans and future generations.
Hip-hop is just one segment of the 80,000+ artifacts we preserve in our permanent collection. Each artifact represents key moments and stories in pop culture, across all genres and formats. And in many ways, these are your stories, too — the music, movies, games, and books that shape your life and make you YOU.
But MoPOP’s goals go far beyond preservation. Pop culture forms out of community, built by sharing and celebrating the stories that inspire us. Without an engaged, vibrant community — what is the point of a museum? I’m so glad you asked, because I’m proud to announce that early this summer, MoPOP is launching its biggest community accessibility initiative ever: our online collections vault.
The online collections vault features photography and detailed scholarly information for every artifact listed, accessible to anyone on the internet with a curiosity or a passion or a research question — the extraordinary result of thousands of hours of work by our Curatorial and Collections staff.
MoPOP’s entire hip-hop collection will be featured at the launch this summer with additional artifacts added regularly. It will take years of work and investment, but our goal is to eventually make all 80,000+ pop culture objects in our care fully accessible online, for every fan worldwide.
You can help MoPOP continue to invest in community and accessibility initiatives like the online collections vault by making your gift today.
As the online collections vault grows, MoPOP will increase the accessibility of pop culture history around the globe and across generations. This access will create an immediate, tangible difference in enabling the celebration of the pop culture that connects us all no matter where we are.
When you give to our spring fundraising drive, your contribution celebrates the power of pop culture and supports all our ongoing work in accessibility, preservation, education, and programs to foster creative thinkers and artistic innovators. And because of your support, these pop culture stories will continue to inspire an ever-growing community.
With gratitude,
Jacob McMurray
Director of Curatorial, Collections + Exhibitions
P.S. Save the date for our hip-hop vault launch event on June 19! Want presale access? Become a member today [link to Join + Give page] for year-long benefits AND support the pop culture you love!
