The Museum of Ice Cream is a Sweet Escape
The Museum of Ice Cream is a Sweet Escape
Co-Founder Manish Vora says it's all about connection -- and cones
What is a museum?
The traditional definition is likely to be a large building with marble hallways lined with dinosaur bones, ancient artifacts, and priceless art.
In recent years, however, museums have become more intimate and interactive. In addition to spending an afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Louvre, you can visit the Idaho Potato Museum or explore the spectacle that is the Neon Museum in Las Vegas.
With a museum catering to nearly every niche subject, it’s no wonder the Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC) is so popular. It celebrates the one food item that universally brings joy to all who consume it in an interactive manner that involves exploring, learning, and consuming plenty of ice cream.
The museum’s first iteration opened in July 2016 as a pop-up in New York City's Meatpacking District by founders Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora.
Opening a salute to frozen desserts wasn’t all sprinkles and whipped cream, according to Manish Vora, who says the financial powers that be weren’t visionary. “We went to a bank and the guy laughed at us and offered us a credit card with a $1,000 limit. That’s not gonna do anything.”
But Vora, who had experience in interactive art installations, wasn’t to be deterred by naysayers and he and Bunn decided to test the waters with a temporary installation in New York. “I had been doing pop-ups at Art Basel. Miami was showing us that the art world was embracing more social projects,” he said, adding that the idea of MOIC was to operate a museum that had less social restrictions and was more fun. “Let’s create something that was hyper creative and that let adults experience play. And ice cream is a unifier. You’re literally a monster if you don’t like ice cream,” he quips.
The experiment worked. The Museum was an overwhelming success, with 200,000 people signing up for a waitlist to experience its pastel-hued charm. Now, there are several permanent branches of MOIC. In addition to New York, MOIC is now open in Chicago, Singapore, Austin, and a newly opened permanent location just opened in Downtown Miami.
I toured the new Miami museum, located in the still-being-built Miami Worldcenter in Downtown Miami (just walking distance from more traditional venues like the PAMM art Museum and Frost Science Center).
The two-story museum takes about an hour or more to walk through, depending on how long you stop and interact with the exhibits. After an initial speil where you are asked to give yourself an “ice cream name”, you are given a cup of banana-flavored Dipping Dots as your first foray into frozen bliss.
From there, you experience different rooms, each bearing both an interactive component and a delicious treat: A wall of pink freezers begs you to open the doors to explore what’s behind them: some yield secret rooms, others an experience, and some a dead end. A pink carnival midway offers free games of skill like Ski Ball and Whack-a-Mole, and the museum’s “Creamliner” is a first class experience complete with an attendant coming down the aisle with refreshments.
The exhibits lead you to a 50s style diner where you can purchase more ice cream if you haven’t had enough of a sugar rush or brain freeze — or cocktails. Finally, you take a slide (or the stairs or elevator) to the now-infamous sprinkle pool, which now comes with a waiver since a man filed a lawsuit claiming injury after diving into the shallow pool of biodegradable plastic "sprinkles."
Although there were plenty of families there, a surprising amount of adults visited. Vora, who greeted guests on opening day in a pink suit and pink Nikes, wasn’t surprised. “The museum was built for adults,” he explains. “This is an experience where adults can tap into their inner child. We want you to be open to newness, to playfulness, to engagement.”
Another surprising aspect of the museum is its lack of high tech digital screens, robots, and calls to “be sure to tag us”.
Vora says the museum was designed that way. “It’s very analog. When we hand you an ice cream that’s melting, you have to put down your phone and eat it. When you come here, we’re going to serve you education and experience.”
The lack of selfie stations and reminders to say “cheese” in front of a wall of pink freezers isn’t hurting its social media standing in one bit with its Instagram following of more than a half million.
At the end of the day, Vora says the Museum of Ice Cream, just like any museum, is exactly what you make of it. “If you go to the Eiffel Tower or visit he Mona Lisa, you can choose to experience the art with your eyes or use your phone. An experience requires human connection. This experience is driven by human connection. We want you to open doors and turn things.”
And, of course, eat ice cream. Lots of ice cream.