ZUMU, Israel’s first mobile museum, invites visitors to partake in an adventurous cultural and contemporary art journey through a compound constructed of shipping containers. This pop​­up museum will hit a new city every three months and creates a participatory experience by presenting a mobile cultural center that brings the best of Israel’s contemporary art scene to Israel’s social and geographic periphery, enabling it to connect even to the most disadvantaged parts of Israeli society. ZUMU seeks to flip the traditional role of the museum and its participants, inviting each city to become the host of this ambitious and exciting project.

Access to culture for all

 Access to arts and culture provides children, youth and adults with channels for self expression, critical thinking, and lifelong skills of creativity. At ​ZUMU​, we believe that every one has a right to access culture and unfortunately, in Israel of 2015, this is not the case. As most of the art world evolves around the center of the country and its financial powerhouses, only one out of 5 children on average get to go to one single, short visit to one of the major art institutions through the duration of their school life. This creates a vicious cycle of polarization and exclusion that estranges children from culture denying them the tools to become more creative and inquiring adults.

“The museum is coming to town!”

The idea is quite simple: A procession of shipping containers that have been converted into exhibition spaces will set up camp at a local parking lot or a neglected public space. Together, these containers will turn the space into a lively urban center for contemporary art, culture and education. The artworks that will be exhibited in these containers will be especially commissioned for ​ZUMU by leading artists from different artistic disciplines and will invite the visitor to create, learn, play and be inspired.

Each of the repurposed containers, that only a short while ago carried cargo over the oceans, will house an “art laboratory” that will be based on the conceptual world of children, inviting them to take part in the art of creation. They are not only spectators or listeners, but rather, active participants taking part in the creative experience themselves. The different artworks invite the children and their family members to directly engage with contemporary art and encourage them to set out on a magical journey during which they will touch, observe, laugh, research, discover, contemplate, connect and feel.

Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships

ZUMU is an independent non​profit social museum that seeks to integrate into the different communities in which it will exhibit. More than being a mere temporary visitor, ​ZUMU will create a work plan together with the authorities, non profit organizations and businesses of the cities it will visit. This will provide educational activities in the schools and kindergartens before and following the arrival of ​ZUMU​, allowing ​ZUMU to leave behind important set of tool and skills for the communities use. These will have an enduring resonance for a long time after ​ZUMU has passed on to other places throughout Israel.