The Experience Music Project — the museum founded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen 16 years ago — is changing its name for the fifth time. Now it will be the Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP. First it was Experience Music Project. Then it was the acronym EMP, then Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (“EMPSFM” for short-ish), then EMP Museum.
Now the institution founded by former Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen in 2000 and designed by Frank Gehry is becoming the Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP.The change, said curatorial director Jasen Emmons, has been in the works for about a decade after the museum added its science-fiction component and continued to grapple with its identity. Besides music and science fiction, it has presented exhibitions about fine art (“DoubleTake”), horror film (“Can’t Look Away”), fashion (“World of Wearable Art”), video games (“The Art of Video Games”) and black leather jackets (“Worn to Be Wild”). The new name, Emmons said, “is just catching up with who we are.”
“It gets frustrating when people say: ‘What does EMP stand for?’ ” said Emmons, who worked at Microsoft and the licensing company Corbis (founded by Bill Gates) before landing at the museum. “It was a head-scratcher for the public as we made zigs and zags while we were growing up. People said: ‘Wait, I thought you were supposed to be a rock ‘n’ roll museum.’”
