The Museum of Ice Cream’s Massive New York Flagship Is Bigger Than Almost Every Art Gallery in the City. See Sugar-Filled Pictures Here

A smorgasbord of food-themed experiential exhibits has cropped
up around the United States in recent years, with selfies as the
binding ingredient. The Museum of Ice Cream pop-up that opened in
New York’s Meatpacking District during the summer of 2016 paved the
way for other short-term shows such as the Museum of Pizza, the
avocado-themed CADO, Candytopia, and the Egg House.

There seems to be no expiration date in sight for this
Instagram-fueled phenomenon, as the Museum of Ice Cream opened a permanent
25,000-square-foot flagship location in New York’s SoHo
neighborhood this weekend. The company behind the millennial pink
empire is valued at $200 million and slated to open additional
locations over the next 18 months, in the U.S. and
internationally.

“We are not your ordinary museum!” reads the museum’s website.
“Prepare for the extraordinary. Here, unicorns are real and every
day starts with a swim in the sprinkle pool.”

The new outpost features 13 sensory installation spread over
three floors, including a spiral slide, Banana Room, bouncy house,
pink subway car, Milkshake Lounge, and a queen bee hive. The
installation for which this roving museum is known best, the
rainbow sprinkle pool, is one-upped by an adults-only sprinkle
jacuzzi.

Timed entry tickets to this experience cost $39—more than double
the fee for the museum’s original pop-up, and well over the cost of admission to any major American
art museum. Despite art world criticism that the company has
unjustly hijacked the term “museum,” the Museum of Ice Cream is a
sensation that has welcomed over 1.5 million visitors since its
inaugural pop-up.

As Artnet’s art business editor, Tim Schneider, has pointed out, the Museum of Ice Cream runs a
lucrative business model (despite offering an arguably empty
calorie experience). It charges high admission while avoiding
almost all of the high operational costs of an art museum, such as
insurance, conservation, and rotating exhibitions.

The worthwhile images at the Museum of Ice Cream are those
produced on-site, by visitors. A disclaimer at the bottom of the
ticket sale terms on the museum’s website notes that it reserves
the right to photographs taken of its guests on the premises, as
well as any photographs taken of the museum and posted publicly by
its guests. Or in other words, once you visit their flagship
location you are likely to unwittingly become a part of the
institution’s permanent image collection. (Art museums, meanwhile,
tend to be more concerned with the copyrights surrounding the
artwork on the walls.)

As for whether the founders of this spectacle are concerned
about the future of museums, it seems unlikely. “It’s not so damn
serious,” Museum of Ice Cream co-founder Maryellis Bunn told
The Atlantic. “I like ice cream, so do you, that’s
enough.”

The post The Museum of Ice Cream’s Massive New York Flagship
Is Bigger Than Almost Every Art Gallery in the City. See
Sugar-Filled Pictures Here appeared first on artnet
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