Museum of Pop Culture
Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) features exhibits everything related to pop culture, from rock n’ roll to video games to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and more. It is a bit expensive, with student tickets costing $23. However, if you’re staying in Seattle for the summer like me and have a local mailing address, you can sign up for a Seattle Public Library card. With this card, you have free access to select museums on certain days. Free tickets are released each day, so you need to click fast to get one you want! Tickets for the more popular museums like the MoPOP go quickly, while others like the zoo are pretty open.
I was lucky enough to snag a MoPOP museum pass using my library card, so I could go to the MoPOP for free! By the way, the library card also lets you have access to many books, in print and online, and you can borrow from any branch of the Seattle Public Library system and return to any branch. Even now, I can still borrow eBooks online and download them to my Kindle from Caltech! It also gives you access to free magazines, music, and some movies, but I haven’t explored the music and movie options yet.
This is the outside of the museum – pretty unique design, right? It was designed byFrank Gehry, who also designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA!
Inside the museum, the first exhibition you see is one featuring famous filmmakers, writers, and characters in pop culture.
Then, walking upstairs to the 2nd floor (the MoPOP has 3 floors), you get to the main exhibition area, where there’s a huge floor to ceiling collection of guitars. On this floor, there are exhibitions on Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, indie games (you can even play the games), fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
The Nirvana exhibition featured writings from throughout his life, his albums, guitars, and more.
I thought the indie game section was pretty cool, but since a lot of kids were playing, I didn’t really sit down to play any games except for one which featured a cow tumbling over and over to move😂
The exhibition on Jimi Hendrix featured his guitar and all the places he traveled to, as well as notes he took throughout his travels.
Christopher Paolini’s script for Eragon!
Further upstairs, there’s a sound lab, where you can DJ up your own mixes, as well as the Marvel special exhibition. Since I got a free pass, I couldn’t enter the Marvel exhibition, but I’m sure it would’ve been cool.
Overall, an awesome museum! Highly recommend going if you ever have the chance :)
