How does a nation or city or neighborhood decide what to collectively remember? Who gets to decide what museums’ collect, display and commemorate and what role can artists have in this conversation? “The National Museum,” a new project from Professor Jon Rubin, critically and creatively engages with the notion of museum as a malleable medium—an institution where an imagined set of social agreements, stories of the past, and visions of the future are constructed in and with the public.

Taking the form of a signage on an empty storefront space, the work will consist of the opening phrase “The National Museum of” and will be modified each month by an invited artist selected by the project’s founder Jon Rubin in consultation with an advisory board consisting of Anastasia James, Director of Curatorial, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; Paola Santoscoy, Director of the El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City; Joseph del Pesco, International Director of KADIST; and Sean Beauford, Pittsburgh-based curator, educator, and writer. The first artist will be Pablo Helguera, whose iteration opens September 22, followed by Alisha Wormsley.

The National Museum website
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announcement