2024
Role: Concept, Research Direction, Production
Objective: Activate people to reflect on systems and initiate change
Collaboration: Melle Bontje
We began with a simple yet pressing question: Why doesn’t Gen-Z go to museums?
We assumed that art wasn’t accessible enough, not in price, but in attitude. Museums felt like exclusive spaces, out of touch with youth culture. Like bouncers at the door saying: “Sorry kid, you’re not on the list.”
Inspired by open-source platforms like Virgil Abloh’s Free Game, we first imagined a website that teaches artists how to publish their work independently. But this idea quickly fell flat: it wasn’t radical enough. And worse: it assumed the problem was with Gen-Z, not with the system.
We turned the question around. What if the real issue is that museums aren’t ,aking the effort to meet young people where they are?
To dig deeper, we conducted street interviews, spoke with artists and even librarians—people working in accessible public spaces. These conversations taught us:
- Museums are intimidating. They feel highbrow and uninviting.
- Young people crave experience. They attend concerts, not galleries.
- School visits felt forced. They didn’t build curiosity, only obligation.
- The main barrier is not cost, but knowledge. People don’t know how to approach art.
Our response? Flip the institution.
Don’t wait to be invited into the museum. Make your own.
My Manifesto: Connecting Barriers
A strategic proposal to reinvent museum structures:
- Introduced the Gen-Z Insights Board (GIB): a rotating council of young advisors who co-create programming and bridge the gap between institutions and youth.
- Advocated for decentralization through public space interventions and pop-up exhibitions.
- Framed museums not as passive relics, but as active participants in cultural equity.
Full manifesto
Public Interventions
Intervention 1: Mirror Installations
Instead of displaying art, we displayed you.
Mirrors placed in public locations with curated prompts reminded passersby:
You are already curatingh your world, from the stickers on your laptop to the artist you follow. You identity is a gallery
Intervention 2: Zine – Make Your Own Museum
A crash course in critical seeing.
The zine guided readers through curating their own museum, recognizing everyday curation as a form of art.
It asked: If everything you surround yourself with expresses who you are, what does your museum say?
Zine
Video:
We created an audiovisual piece to show that your world is the museum and that you are the curator.
Video
Installation: The White Cube
For our final assessment, we created a pretentious white cube, an exaggerated symbol of exclusivity. It wasn’t just about critique; it was a provocation.
Reflection
This project wasn’t easy. I struggled with creative confidence, collaborative tension, and self-doubt. But that tension helped clarify what I value:
- I’m not an activist. I’m a translator between systems and people.
- I care about breaking down barriers, not yelling at them.
- I believe museums can become spaces of collaboration, not control.