The Museum of Care, MICRO‘s newest and tiniest museum dedicated to understanding the fundamental values of our healthcare system, is on view at the Brooklyn’s Public Library until November 30, 2021. It will then move to New York Public Library‘s other branch locations in the other four boroughs. What makes this tiny exuberant museum so unique? It is refrigerator-sized and captures crucial insight into the exploration and history of caretaking, not only within our healthcare system but within all of humanity. Since its launch in 2017, MICRO has worked with storytellers and scientists to build and place museums at least approximately six feet tall in public places such as libraries, community centers, museums, and hospitals.
The Museum of Care, supported by Johnson & Johnson’s Center for Health Worker Innovation, focuses on the essential needs of healthcare workers. It gives voice to genuine healthcare providers and people while journeying into the changes needed for the healthcare system to progress today. It demonstrates just how changes can be supplemented by any individual using its four main pillars: the Beginnings of Care, the Work of Care, Care for All, and Your Role in Care.
The Beginnings of Care is a brief history on society and care, overviewing inequality, behavior, and the environment’s relationship with care. It helps us understand how we evolved in our caring relationships with everything and everyone around us. A small digital screen demonstration shows our evolution over thousands of years, like how our hands have even become softer to the touch. The standpoint talks about how illnesses did not affect all societies the same and how the Industrial Revolution started to wreak havoc on our environment—and thus our relationship with the earth and the diseases that proliferate due to poor air quality.
The Work of Care reveals how caregiving is not just limited to doctors and nurses but is also involved in our everyday lives. Whether caring for a pet, loved one, neighbor, customer, or stranger, we are all caregivers. This display highlights listening intently, working under pressure, and resiliency as general practices for caretakers in other parts of the world.
The Care for All display demonstrates the importance of listening to the voices of healthcare workers who often become burdened with stifled needs, as well as how caring for them can enrich caring for all our lives. “Give healthcare workers what they need,” one of the signs says.
Lastly, the Your Role in Care display acts as a steppingstone for how civilians can partake in creating a better environment for our care. This can be achieved by being active participants in our environment, standing up for ourselves, and using our voices to uplift the needs of healthcare workers.
The Museum of Care is just one example of how the Brooklyn Public Library is a leader in developing 21st-century modern libraries. It provides thousands of free programs from educators, writers, artists to strengthen the Brooklyn community. It acts as more than just a place to check out and read a good book, but also a place of personal advancement and development with its innovative resources. Cora Fisher, Curator of the Visual Art Programming at the Brooklyn Public Library, said, “We are excited to be once again working with MICRO to bring their innovative museum model to BPL.”
MICRO collaborated with HunterGatherer for the Museum of Care’s graphic design. HunterGatherer is a Brooklyn design studio specializing in multidisciplinary arts such as illustration and animation that create intelligence, wittiness, and humor in education.
MICRO is no stranger to revealing educational surprises to the public. It had prior installations at the Brooklyn Public Library and the Ronald McDonald House, where it was wrapped up as a six-foot-tall present for children to unwrap. MICRO’s museums range from a Mollusk Museum to a Perpetual Motion Museum based on physics. The future of these museums is bright because now, in an age where our attention span has shortened, MICRO fits the mold for educating and enriching minds plausibly and entertainingly. To find more information about the upcoming Museum of Care tour schedule, click here.
