The Smallest Museum in St Paul invites artists, makers, and historians to apply to curate the micro-museum in one-month increments. The Smallest Museum in St Paul offers a platform to engage and delight LRT Green Line commuters and pedestrian traffic.
The Smallest Museum in St Paul (SMSP) is a 3ft x 2ft micro museum, housed in a vintage fire-hose cabinet outside WORKHORSE COFFEE BAR at 2399 University Ave, St Paul 55114. Established by funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of the 2014 St Paul Arts Challenge, The Smallest Museum in St Paul offers a platform to engage and delight customers, LRT Green Line commuters, and pedestrian traffic along University Avenue.
In its first year of programming The Smallest Museum in St Paul has hosted everything from micro letter-press printing, to a crocheted replica of the coffee shop, to lacquered & sculpted frogs with malformed bodies as commentary on the intersection of science and art. There have been several exhibits about the history of the neighborhood and the Security Building, in which the SMSP is housed.
While each exhibit uniquely connects to project criteria, all exhibits seem to engage across a span of ages (7 to 70 years old) and across a diversity of visual art disciplines (printing, painting, artifact collection, photography, sculpture, film, etc.)
The inaugural SMSP year features a range of emerging and established artists, as well as makers who do not identify as artists, but rather are historians, biologists, or administrators. There is no admission fee, anyone can visit and it’s open year round. The Smallest Museum in St Paul is a space for art, humor, engagement, reaction, & public discourse.
