2020 was a year of transitions. In 2021, it's a new world - for museums, museum professionals, and the people we serve. There is no turning back, and no one clear path forward. Now is the perfect time to take a wide angle view of the future: to experiment, iterate, and reevaluate. Free the Museum is a movement to embrace these turbulenttimes by activating the “museum experience” in the world around us. Free the Museum is a call to action for museum practitioners to transform everyday places into sites of learning, joy, reflection, and healing.
Free the Museum is a way to discover new paths forward, imagining a museum model that is more inclusive and equitable, more responsive and relevant to the community in which it sits. Free the Museum is your chance to "hack the world", repurposing everyday places as platforms for meaning and expression, highlighting the stories they have to tell.
Join the movement
Ready to Get Started?
Your Free the Museum intervention can be as ephemeral as chalk or as permanent as steel. It’s up to you! The free tools, guides, and examples are here to get you started. Be sure to take pictures – successes or failures!
Free the Museum’s Activators are your thinking partners! We can brainstorm with you, connect you to other FtM participants, or just cheer you on and get your project “unstuck.”
