Pop-up library, portable reading room, modular educational platform, experimental classroom, placemaking tool. From the start, we wrestled with how to describe and name the Uni. The Uni is intended to be modular and adaptable, but one thing is certain: museums are in our DNA, and they are part of our future. Our goal is to have a mix of Uni cubes out in public space that draw equally from the domains of librarians, teachers, and museum educators.

CFMlogo SML

At the invitation of the American Alliance of Museums’ Center for the Future of Museums, we’ve guest authored a post about how the Uni wants museums to pop up in public space via the Uni:

The future of museums can include public space, even outdoor public space. A commitment to bring museum programs to plazas, parks, town squares, and even farmers markets and malls—the places where we already gather—will benefit our culture, our cities, and museums themselves. . .The Uni is an opportunity for museums to create a concise experience, in a 14″ cube, for a walk-up urban audience. With these cubes, we take a mosaic approach to programming public space. The Uni provides a framework for involving multiple institutions, side-by-side, sharing a physical infrastructure and relying on volunteer educators who relish the opportunity to work in public space. . .

Read the full post here, and stay tuned as we prepare for an amazing 2013 season.

Uni at Corona Plaza, Queens, NY, 2012.