@SFOMuseum Twitter Posts Tagged UnknownMuseum This is SFO Museum's archive of the @SFOMuseum Twitter account. There are 34 posts and this is page 3 of 3. See all the tags or all the Twitter posts that have been archived so far.

A visit to the #UnknownMuseum was a complete immersion in conceptual art and American consumerism. The museum’s mission is to challenge visitors with recollections of items they may have lived with, and to suggest the influence of those objects on American popular culture. This tweet was posted on September 28, 2023.

“In keeping with physical fitness trends, I was always hoping that visitors, by viewing some forgotten object, might be exercising that area of the brain which holds onto the memory cells.”—Mickey McGowan, curator, #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on September 28, 2023.

A very special thank you to Mickey McGowan for making this exhibition possible. See “Recollections… from the Unknown Museum” on display, post-security, in Terminal 2. https://t.co/4G3SzOmcrE #UnknownMuseum #MickeyMcGowan #BayArea #BayAreaHistory This tweet was posted on June 27, 2023.

In 1973, McGowan began collaborating with artist-friend Dickens “44” Bascom (b. 1944), and they opened the Unknown Museum the following year. When Bascom moved overseas, McGowan continued as “resident curator” of the #UnknownMuseum—a position he still holds today. #MickeyMcGowan This tweet was posted on June 27, 2023.

McGowan started collecting as a boy, nailing bottlecaps to plywood and beachcombing for items that he attached to boards as assemblages. He moved north of San Francisco to Sausalito in 1969, and during the 1970s he made art shoes under the pseudonym Apple Cobbler. #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on June 27, 2023.

Artist, curator, and archivist Mickey McGowan (b. 1946) grew up in LA surrounded by experimental art and fashion, live beatnik jazz and rock ‘n’ roll music, surfing, hot rodding, and other elements of Southern California’s booming, pop-cultural scene #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on June 27, 2023.

See “Recollections… from the Unknown Museum” on display, post-security, in Terminal 2. https://t.co/4G3SzOmKhc #UnknownMuseum #MickeyMcGowan #BayArea #BayAreaHistory This tweet was posted on May 19, 2023.

Formally opened in December 1974, the Unknown Museum became a center of local creativity, rotating its own exhibitions, displaying the work of other artists, and hosting concerts and themed events. The museum continues as a private museum and lending archives. #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on May 19, 2023.

McGowan & Bascom created art and installations in a large room that allowed for mass assemblages and the “assault of the objects” on one’s senses. McGowan stated, “curating the museum allowed me to present my ‘two-cents-worth’ reactions to postwar American culture" #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on May 19, 2023.

Our newest exhibition, “Recollections… from the Unknown Museum” is now on display in Terminal 2! An “exploration into America’s brain,” the Unknown Museum was founded by artist, curator, and archivist Mickey McGowan and artist Dickens “44” Bascom in Mill Valley. #UnknownMuseum This tweet was posted on May 19, 2023.