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TRIBECA’S OFFBEAT MMUSEUMM A FREIGHT ELEVATOR ART EXPERIENCE by Rev. Jen THE GUGGENHEIM and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are awesome but sometimes, you don’t feel like going above 14 th Street, hiking up a bunch of stairs, spending 20 bucks and wading through crowds just to see a Rembrandt or Van Gogh. Sometimes you want a more intimate, inexpensive, weird Downtown experience, one that say, only involves

1-dollar and about 4 people max. If this de- scribes you, I encourage you to check out “Mmuseumm.” located in a Tribeca freight elevator (Cortlandt Alley, btw. Franklin & White). Given it’s in an elevator, it is likely the world’s smallest museum (even smaller than the Troll Museum, where I live.)

The capacity is generally three people and on weekends, when it’s open (from 12-6), lines sometimes form down the block hence it’s wise to contact Mmuseumm ahead of time via www.mmuseumm.com. Having visited a few times, I’ve learned that Mmu- seumm specializes in personal collections — “everyday objects that visitors can con- nect to.” But the items on display there are far from boring. The exhibitions change ev- ery few months but the one guarantee is an “only in New York” experience. Mmuseumm is curated by “Red Bucket Films” with cre- ative/concept directors Alex Kalman, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie who have moved into their third season as a modern natural history museum, thanks in part to mindful submissions from the community. On past visits to Mmuseumm I have viewed the world’s largest collection of fake vomit, items from Al Goldstein’s storage unit (including his sizeable collection of gold lamé Air Jordan’s, a portable DVD player and a DVD entitled “For Crack Addicts”), an assortment of mutilated bills and counterfeit money, objects made for and by prison- ers, Disney-themed bulletproof backpacks for children, a collection of toothpaste from around the world, silicone body parts parlors use to display piercings and much more. Yet, Mmuseumm’s most recent exhibition is the grandest to date. For starters, they’ve added a new piece to the permanent collection, which is clearly the “Mona Lisa” of the tiny yet majestic space — “Shoe Thrown at President George W. Bush.” Who can forget the historic press conference when, Muntandar al-Zaidi, a journalist, stood up from his chair and yelled, “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog” as he threw his

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