Step into the world's smallest museum
- Text by HUCK HQ
- Photography by Nick Heller
“Recent years have certainly been alive with beauty and horror, great invention and destruction,” explains the anonymous recorded voice that guides visitors through New York’s City’s Mmuseumm. “And the artefacts of today’s world found between the cracks of our communities are the physical embodiment of contemporary humanity.”
Nestled in an alley in Lower Manhattan, Mmuseumm is perhaps the world’s smallest museum. The converted elevator shaft plays host to a rotating selection of cultural flotsam and jetsam, curated to help viewers make sense of the mystery and madness of life today.
Objects on display have varied from fake IDs and NYC tip jars to items Dr. Robert Insley has removed from his patients in Chatham, Massachusetts and Stefan Ruiz’s collection of prison-made tools and artwork.
“Intimate illustrations, honest proof… contemporary artefacts,” according to our invisible telephone guide. “What we consider our cultural DNA, to more richly illustrate humanise and understand this modern world.”
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you never miss another Huck short film.
Find out more about Mmuseumm, 4 Cortlandt Alley, b/t Franklin St & White St, New York City.
Film by Nicolas Heller – @NuevaYorkNico. Music by Falside.
Latest on Huck
Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims
Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Written by: Hannah Bentley
Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification
Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.
Written by: Isaac Muk
New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture
Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South
Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind
Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.
Written by: Emma Garland
Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”
Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.
Written by: Katie Goh
