Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP)

The Museum of Pop Culture, known as MoPOP, at 325 5th Ave N on the Seattle Center campus in Seattle, Washington, explores contemporary popular culture through music, science fiction, fantasy, horror and video games. It opened in 2000 as the Experience Music Project, founded by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and was renamed MoPOP in 2016 after merging with the Science Fiction Museum. The building was designed by the architect Frank Gehry, who is said to have drawn inspiration from smashed electric guitars, and it is clad in about 21,000 shingles of colored stainless steel and aluminum in swirling forms that sit beside the Space Needle and the Monorail track. The museum holds more than 150,000 objects, among them instruments, costumes, manuscripts and film props. Its collection highlights Seattle's musical heritage, including the rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who was born in the city, and the grunge scene of the late 1980s and 1990s with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Exhibits such as Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses and the Guitar Gallery use instruments, handwritten lyrics, posters and video. Other galleries cover science fiction, horror and fantasy, including props and costumes from films and television, and the Indie Game Revolution. The Sound Lab allows visitors to play instruments, and the Sky Church concert hall hosts events beneath a large video screen. The curatorial approach is thematic and immersive, mixing artifacts with interactive technology. The Gehry building has been maintained since the early 2000s, with gallery layouts updated to suit changing exhibitions. MoPOP is located steps from the Space Needle, the Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Pacific Science Center, which makes it simple to combine with other Seattle Center sights. Typical visits last two to three hours, and the museum appeals to fans of music and movies of all ages.